Essex Maps

12x7 cm

COLOURFUL MINIATURE MAP. FIRST EDITION.

ESSEX.
Pub. by S. Leigh 18, Strand. | Sid^y. Hall sculp^t.

Miniature map engraved by Sidney Hall and first published by Samuel Leigh in Leigh's New Pocket Atlas of England and Wales in 1820. The demand for pocket atlases for the traveller was high during the first half of the 19th century and this little atlas, Samuel Leigh's only cartographic work, was very popular, running to ten editions with publications continued after his death by his widow and then his son until 1839. The plates were then acquired by George Biggs who published them a number of times until 1843.

Sidney Hall (1788?-1831), began work as an engraver about 1809 and was in partnership with Michael Thomson (fl.1809-1815) as "Thomson & Hall" in 1814. Hall was a pioneer of engraving on steel and is almost certainly the first engraver to use steel plates for map engraving, producing steel engraved maps from 1821. He married Selina Price in 1821 but died early in 1831 aged forty-two. Selina carried on his engraving business signing her maps "S. Hall" which has caused some confusion in map bibliographies.

Good hand coloured example from the first edition of 1820.