Item details: Johnson’s Atlas of England; With all the Railways Containing Forty Two Separate Maps of the Counties and Islands
£ 1400.00
JOHNSON, Thomas, Thos. Johnson
Johnson’s Atlas of England; With all the Railways Containing Forty Two Separate Maps of the Counties and Islands
Imprint: Manchester, 1847
Binding: Hardback
Quarto (275 x 215 mm.), full contemporary cloth binding, ornate blind panelling, central gilt title set within gilt vignette, partially rebacked retaining original spine with gilt title dated 1849, light wear. With lithographic title page, contents leaf and 42 full bold early wash coloured maps, interleaved, in good condition.
The plates for this VERY RARE atlas are by Joshua Archer (1792?-1863) and were first published in William Pinnock’s Guide to Knowledge, 1833. What is unusual about them for this period is that they were produced using woodblocks. The maps were the work of Joshua Archer (1792?-1863) and Selena Hall (fl.1831-53, the widow of the engraver Sidney Hall). Archer was declared bankrupt shortly after in 1835 and was in prison for debt again in 1845. Here the process used by Thomas Johnson for the Atlas of England, published in Manchester in 1847, is a lithographic transfer. A Thomas Johnson is recorded as being a bookseller, stationer, bookbinder, printer and publisher in Liverpool between 1833-43. This is possibly the same Johnson as our publisher after a move to Manchester. Lithography preserves the original block or plate from excessive wear and allows an extended life. For this atlas the existence of some of the early railways is recorded. One further edition appeared in 1863 surviving in just two known examples. Provenance: William and Victoria Dailey, Los Angeles; Bernard Quaritch Ltd (pencil collation inscription on final free endpaper, 1984); private English collection; Clive A. Burden Ltd. Catalogue V (2010) item 43; private English collection. Carroll (1996) no. 98; Chubb (1927) no. 523; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).
Stock number:10292.