Send us your name and email address.
We'll add you to our subscriber list and alert you to new catalogues and similar news
Mr. Philip D. Burden
P.O. Box 863,
Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks HP6 9HD,
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel: +44 (0) 1494 76 33 13
Email: enquiries@caburden.com
This is one of a handful of plates engraved by Sutton Nicholls for Henry Overton, rare. It is derived from Jan Jansson’s map of the county with the addition of roads and starts to delineate towns returning members of Parliament. Nicholls was an engraver of some of Robert Morden’s maps for Camden’s Britannia and here he appears to use those as the source for the roads at least.
John Overton (1640-1713) was the son of a bookseller Henry Overton and married the daughter of the publisher William Garrett. He was a printseller who in 1665 acquired the stock of Peter Stent who died of the plague that year and who had arguably the largest collection of prints on the market at the time. Amongst this stock he found twelve copper plates of the English counties by William Smith. These formed the nucleus of a set of maps of the English Counties. Overton commissioned the engraving of some new plates for missing counties; amongst them is one of Berkshire by the great engraver Wenceslaus Hollar (offered below). Those counties which Overton could not provide from his own stock were supplied by the acquired maps of Speed, Blaeu or Jansson. These county atlases were an English version of a rich seam of similar Dutch composite atlases published from the mid-seventeenth century. They are exceedingly rare surviving in just four known examples. Later atlases sold by his son Henry are similarly rare, only seven survive.
Until about 1711 both John and Henry Overton had been content to acquire the plates of Jansson and others to fill in the missing counties in their supply. Most of those of Blaeu had been lost in the disastrous fire of 1672. Quite probably around 1711 the plates of Jansson were acquired by David Mortier who possibly stopped supplying the Overton firm. This forced Henry to engrave maps of those missing counties. He employed the services of Sutton Nicholls who promptly produced five maps between 1711 and 1712. Production was halted when in about 1713 fortune gave Henry the opportunity to acquire the old John Speed plates from Christopher Browne. Carroll (1996) 21 st. 2; Hodson (1984-97) I pp. 41-2 & 61-2.
John Overton (1640-1713) was the son of a bookseller Henry Overton and married the daughter of the publisher William Garrett. He was a printseller who in 1665 acquired the stock of Peter Stent who died of the plague that year and who had arguably the largest collection of prints on the market at the time. Amongst this stock he found twelve copper plates of the English counties by William Smith. These formed the nucleus of a set of maps of the English Counties. Overton commissioned the engraving of some new plates for missing counties; amongst them is one of Berkshire by the great engraver Wenceslaus Hollar (offered below). Those counties which Overton could not provide from his own stock were supplied by the acquired maps of Speed, Blaeu or Jansson. These county atlases were an English version of a rich seam of similar Dutch composite atlases published from the mid-seventeenth century. They are exceedingly rare surviving in just four known examples. Later atlases sold by his son Henry are similarly rare, only seven survive.
Until about 1711 both John and Henry Overton had been content to acquire the plates of Jansson and others to fill in the missing counties in their supply. Most of those of Blaeu had been lost in the disastrous fire of 1672. Quite probably around 1711 the plates of Jansson were acquired by David Mortier who possibly stopped supplying the Overton firm. This forced Henry to engrave maps of those missing counties. He employed the services of Sutton Nicholls who promptly produced five maps between 1711 and 1712. Production was halted when in about 1713 fortune gave Henry the opportunity to acquire the old John Speed plates from Christopher Browne. Carroll (1996) 21 st. 2; Hodson (1984-97) I pp. 41-2 & 61-2.
OVERTON, Henry
A New Mapp of Lincoln Shire with the Post & Cross Roads, & other remarks, according to the latest & best observations 1712.
London, c.1711
390 x 480 mm., with a couple of tears to the margin repaired, upper left is one 30 mm. in length just into the image, repair to extreme upper left corner not effecting the image, light even toning across the map, otherwise a fair example.
Stock number: 4345
SOLD