Yorkshire West Riding

25x19 cm

The West Riding of YORK SHIRE.  By  H. Moll Geographer.

Copperplate engraving by Herman Moll (1654?-1732), first published in his New Description of England and Wales…in 1724. Probably born in Bremen, Germany about 1654, Moll came to London about 1688 and set up business in Blackfriars as an engraver and map seller. The scarcity of surviving examples of his New Description..., and the publication of only a single edition, suggests that the work was not a great success. The maps were also issued in the same year without the text description in his Set of fifty New and Correct maps of England and Wales... and other titles in the same format. These publications ran to several editions published by Moll and other publishers, including Thomas and John Bowles.  Herman Moll died in St. Clement Danes, September 22nd 1732, but publication of his maps continued until 1753. For this final issue, under the title H. Moll’s British Atlas…lately revised and improved with the addition of many hundred places, by Emanuel Bowen, Geographer to his Majesty…, the plates were cut down by publishers Thomas Bowles and John Bowles and Son [Carington], removing the antiquities that flanked the maps, presumably in an attempt to modernise the appearance of the maps and extend their publication life. Aside from the removal of the antiquities, the changes to the maps included additional roads and place names and mileage figures on the roads increased to represent Ogilby’s measured miles instead of computed miles.

This map of Yorkshire is from the final edition of 1753. Old ink manuscript title West Riding at the top edge verso has bled through to the map margin on the face, otherwise a good hand coloured example of this final issue.
Ref. Whitaker Printed Maps of Yorkshire  [209] (Report of maps unchanged is incorrect).