FIRST EDITION SECOND ISSUE in fabulous early wash colour. Thomas Badeslade (fl.1719-1745) was a surveyor and engineer who was involved in many schemes to improve the waterways. He was also an established author and in 1742 he had William Henry Toms (fl.1723-61) engrave a series of maps from his draughts and publish them as the ‘Chorographia Britanniae’. It is the first pocket size English county atlas published in the eighteenth century. It is surprising that it took so long considering the runaway success of the ‘Britannia Depicta’ of 1720. The first edition of the atlas is found in four variants and was on sale for only a short period of time. Within two or three months a new edition was published.

The second issue placed plate numbers ‘8’ and ‘9’ on the those of Cambridgeshire and Cheshire which had been omitted on publication. Immediately following Toms ordered the addition of the price to the end of the imprint on the title page. A manuscript addition to the imprint on the title is the price of 12s. The price of the atlas was 6 shillings however ‘There are for the Curious, some colour’d in a beautiful Manner, Price 12s bound’ (‘London Daily Post’). Provenance: private English collection. Beresiner (1983) pp. 49-50; Chubb (1927) 170; ESTC T165385; Hodson (1984-97) no. 188 (variant B); refer Shirley (2004) T.Bad 1a; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).