Parts Regions & Departments of France

38x32 cm

BORDEAUX
Published under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
Drawn by W.B.Clarke Arch.^t | Engraved by J. Henshall.
Published by Baldwin & Cradock. 47. Paternoster Row. Oct.^r 1832.

The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1826-1848) was founded in London in 1826 with the object of publishing information for the English working and middle classes. Among its publications were several fine atlases consisting of separately issued maps between 1829 and 1844. The town plans were particularly well produced with fine detail and usually including fine vignettes.

Drawn by William Barnard Clarke (1806-1865), architect, archaeologist, translator and cartographer. Born in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, the son of Edward Clarke, solicitor, and his wife, Sarah Clarke, née Linell. He was admitted to St. Paul's School, London at the age of 10. He spent time in Rome studying architecture in his youth and became President of the Architectural Society of London in 1831.  He promoted and supervised the restoration of the Eleanor Cross at Waltham Cross 1831-1834. He was an active member and contributor to the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge and as a cartographer, produced a noted celestial Atlas and many maps and plans for the Society.

Engraved by Josiah Henshall (1801?-1869), artist, engraver and copperplate printer. Born in London the son of engraver William Henshall (1774-1843), he is recorded as an engraver and printer on the 1841 Census, living in Islington with his wife Mary and two daughters and on the 1851 Census, in Camden as an engraver and painter living with his wife Mary, a daughter, a nephew and a servant. He produced a number of maps and town plans for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge until 1838 but then concentrated on painting exhibiting over seventy paintings, mainly of buildings, in London shows from 1848 to 1863. By 1861 he had retired to Hampstead. 

Fine hand coloured example of the town of Bordeaux with vignettes views from the Quai des Salinières and the Quai des Chartrons.