The mid-eighteenth century witnessed an increased market for travelling pocket atlases. Those of Moll, Ellis and Thomas Kitchin’s ‘Atlas Anglicanus’ were directed at that market. The latter atlas was still somewhat large and in 1769 Kitchin (1719-84) published a new and quite different atlas entitled ‘Kitchin’s Pocket Atlass [sic]’. It was deliberately priced at 7s. 6d. to undercut the competition of Ellis. It was smaller in format but did however include a new feature. All of the maps were drawn on the same scale, as the title claims ‘Drawn to One Scale. By which the true proportion they severally bear to each other may be easily ascertained’. It was an idea ahead of its time though as sales proved poor and the number of surviving examples is an indication of this. Normally the engraving of county maps would use an earlier series as a source. This however was not practical as all of the scales would have been different. How to achieve this was solved by using Kitchin’s own four-sheet map of England and Wales published in 1752. Provenance: Christies, South Kensington, 12 September 1980 lot 99 sold for £275. Acquired from an unknown source shortly after for £350 by a private English collection. Chubb (1927) no. 235; Hodson (1984-97) no. 258; Shirley (2004) T.Kit 5a.