Northamptonshire Maps

13x10 cm

RARE "UPSIDE-DOWN" SERIES. FIRST EDITION.

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE,

The engraver or engravers of this series of maps are unknown and the maps are referenced by the first publisher, Robert Butters, a Fleet Street printer, who issued them in An Atlas of England... in 1803. They are also known as the "upside-down series", the England map and many of the county maps being engraved with North to the bottom of the page. In fact, the county maps are variously orientated with North to the top, left, right or bottom of the page. The work was possibly intended for school use and the odd orientation of the maps may have been done to stimulate young minds. This represented Robert Butters' only serious venture into cartography but unlike the huge success of John Cary's publication The Traveller's Companion, on which these maps were based, Butter's publication was limited to this single issue. John Hatchard acquired the plates later the same year issuing them in a two-volume work The Picture of England 1803, and 1804. The publications were small and examples are rare.
From the first edition of 1803 from Butters' Atlas of England . . .   Northamptonshire is orientated correctly with North to the top of the page but the north point is engraved incorrectly pointing south. The plate was amended after this first issue with the title moved from below the map to the side.

Some wrinkling below the title and overall light toning to the paper but still a good example in original hand colour of a rare map in the first state.

Whitaker Printed Maps of Northamptonshire ref. 295