John Luffman (fl.1776-1820) had a varied career being a publisher, engraver, goldsmith, author and geographer. He also became bankrupt in 1793 but appears to have recovered. His earliest recorded work is the engraving of the road strips for Taylor and Skinner’s ‘Survey and Maps of the Roads of North Britain’ in 1776. In 1781 he was the engraver of Andrew Armstrong’s large scale map of Rutland. 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. It was first published in 1803 by Luffman as a ‘New Pocket Atlas and Geography of England and Wales’. A further issue was published later in the same year where the maps all appear in their second state, but by 1806 ownership had passed to the firm of Lackington Allen & Co. Near the beginning of the work is an attached paper label ‘Scotland and Ireland, to correspond with this work, will be published early in 1804’. No such work is known to have been published. This is an uncut example of the extremely rare FIRST EDITION, FIRST STATE. Provenance: manuscript ownership inscription of R. J. Alser inside front cover; private English collection; Clive A Burden Ltd. 1997; private English collection. Refer Batten & Bennett no. 66; refer Carroll (1996) 59; Chubb (1927) 308; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).