James Pigot (d.1843) began as an engraver and printer in Manchester before moving to London. In 1811, he began his own business and concentrated from 1822 on publishing directories of the whole country. In 1826-27 he published one of the Home Counties which was according to the title ’embellished with a new series of Elegant Maps …’. An advert in 1829 indicated that the full series of maps were available bound up separately as the ‘British Atlas’. Perhaps following his partnership with Isaac Slater in 1839 this set of reduced sized maps was issued in fortnightly parts. The final work was issued as ‘A Pocket Topography’ and is undated. However, there are numerous references to events and data from 1841 and the last part issued was in August of that year. The binding order is curious, the first volume consists of the counties in the south of England, the second the northern ones. They are split evenly and in each they are bound in alphabetical order. Leicestershire and Rutland appear on the same map. The large folding general map is found properly bound into the beginning of the second volume. Provenance: bookplates of D M Green. Beresiner (1983) pp. 177-80; Burden, Eugene (2000) ‘A Pocket Topography … by Pigot & Co.’, in IMCoS Journal no. 80 pp. 39-45; Carroll 108; refer Chubb (1927) 463.