Cumberland Maps

12x15 cm

CUMBERLAND
 
John Seller (fl. 1660-1697), hydrographer to Charles II, James II and Queen Anne, is renowned for his sea charts published in 1671 under the title The English Pilot. In 1679 he began work on an ambitious project to make a new survey of the counties of England and Wales and prepare a new county atlas entitled Atlas Anglicanus. Despite financial support from the Treasury the scheme failed with only six counties completed. Probably as a means of restoring his finances, Seller prepared a series of small county maps, generally based on John Speed's maps of 1610, and published them under the titles Anglia Contracta, Camden's Britannia Abrig’d…1694 and The History of England… in 1696 & 1697, the maps were issued again a few years later in Camden's Britannia Abrig’d…1701 and reprints of The History of England…1703. A very rare late edition of Camden's Britannia Abrig’d… has been found published in 1711. The maps were not seen again for over 70 years when they were reworked (generally incorporating some place name revisions and a simplified title panel) and published in large numbers in the successful and popular work, Sir Francis Grose's Antiquities of England and Wales between 1784 and 1787*. These later 'Grose' editions included a typeset text printed description of the county below the engraved map and, for most counties, continued verso.
*1787 is the last given publication date for Grose's work but maps have been found with dated watermarks up to 1815.
 
 
This example, with typeset text description of Cumberland printed below and verso was published in Grose's Antiquities of England and Wales.  
Good, clean example in original hand colour.