Buy this book on-line

LUFFMAN, John, Engraved, Printed & Published by J. Luffman, No. 28, Little Bell Alley, Coleman Street : A New Pocket Atlas and Geography of England and Wales, Illustrated with Fifty-five Copper plates, Shewing all the Great Post Roads ..

Octavo (170 x 105 mm.), in contemporary quarter paper boards with original paper title label, rebacked, uncut. With engraved title, Preface, England including a short key with attached paper label, 42 circular maps of the English counties, half title 'Wales', 12 maps of the Welsh counties, all in their FIRST STATE and each with original tissue, Index leaf, an Index map of England and Wales followed by an advert for 'New Works published by J. Luffman', plates 41 and 42 bound in opposing order, otherwise in good condition.

AN UNCUT EXAMPLE OF THE EXTREMELY RARE FIRST EDITION, FIRST STATE. No other example has been on the market since 2006. John Luffman (fl.1776-1820) had a varied career being a publisher, engraver, goldsmith, author and geographer. He was apprenticed to John Bayly in the Goldsmiths Company and made free in 1773. His earliest recorded work is the engraving some of the road strips for George Taylor and Andrew Skinner’s Survey and Maps of the Roads of North Britain in 1776. In 1779, he was the engraver of John Prior’s large-scale map of Leicestershire and in 1781 did the same for Captain Andrew Armstrong’s large-scale map of Rutland. He visited Antigua in 1786-88 and published an account in 1789. By 1793 though, he became bankrupt but appears to have recovered. Later in his career he became a publisher in his own right specialising in smaller maps and atlases such as the Select Plans of the Ports and Harbours of the World (1800-1803).These curious circular engravings of the counties of England and Wales are his most noted work and accompanied a geographical text. A rare atlas that has always been desired by collectors. This first edition was published in 1803 by Luffman as a New Pocket Atlas and Geography of England and Wales. A further issue was issued later in the same year where the maps all appear in their second state. The difference can be found in the location of the plate numbers above the map. In the first issue they are some distance above the round borders nearer the plate edge and are often found cropped in binding. In the second issue they were re-engraved closer to the upper edge of the border. Each map contains the chief towns, roads and boundaries. No physical features are recorded at all. Pasted to the half title of this example is an attached paper label stating, 'Scotland and Ireland, to correspond with this work, will be published early in 1804'. No such work is known to have been published. Provenance: manuscript ownership inscription of R. J. Alser inside front cover; private English collection; Clive A. Burden Ltd. 1997; private English collection; Clive A. Burden Ltd. (2012) Catalogue IX item 63; private English collection. Refer Batten & Bennett (2008) no. 66; refer Carroll (1996) 59; Chubb (1927) 309; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).

Bibliophile Bookbase for antiquarian books, maps and prints.