Clive A. Burden LTD. Rare Maps, Antique Atlases, Books and Decorative Prints

The Mapping of North America

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

THE INCREDIBLY RARE FIRST STATE from arguably the rarest and most desirable of the early playing cards done of the English counties. There are only three substantial collections of first state William Redmayne’s known to survive. First published in 1676 with just outline suitmarks, the second state issued the following year contained vertical bars for red suits or cross-hatching for the black suits. Only one recorded complete pack in either state survives. Redmayne’s cards were published just three months after those of Robert Morden and advertised in the Trinity Term catalogue as being for sale by ‘Redmayne at the Crown on Addle Hill; Henry Mortlock at the Phoenix, Robert Turner at the Star, in St. Paul’s Church-yard; H. Cox in Holborn; and B. Billingsley at the Printing Press in Cornhill’. Redmayne was a printer active between 1674 and 1719. In 1719 he was imprisoned for printing libel on the government and died in April in Newgate Prison of a fever. The maps on the Redmayne cards are smaller than those on the rival by Morden and are reminiscent of those thumb-nail maps by Matthew Simmons in 1635.

Each map is accompanied by surrounding descriptive text on their respective commodities and points of interest. The Club suit mark bears the roman numeration ‘VIII’ nearby. Provenance: ‘Elizabeth Browse’ on the verso of other cards acquired with it. Beresiner (2010) p. 18; not in Chubb; Hodson (1984) I no. 146; King (2003) p. 141; Mann, Sylvia and David Kingsley. (1972). ‘Playing Cards Depicting maps of the British Isles, and of English and Welsh Counties’, in The Map Collectors’ Circle, no. 87 pp. 3-4, 18-19, App. II no. 4, App. III no. 3. pl. xii (listing all the cards); not in Quixley; Skelton 96.
REDMAYNE, William

Cornwall

London, 1676
55 x 90 mm., light stain at the bottom otherwise in good condition.
Stock number: 9091

SOLD

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