The mid-eighteenth century witnessed an increased market for travelling pocket atlases. Those of Herman Moll, Joseph 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. It is enhanced by the fact that it was sold ‘routinely in soft leather covers’. The protection afforded the contents being less and the suggested usage for travel reducing its likely survival.

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. This atlas was once in the Bibliothek Hammer, Stockholm. Christian Hammer (1818-1905) amassed over 50,000 books and tried unsuccessfully to sell the collection to the Swedish state. Following his death the entire library was sold through Bukowski’s auction between 1906 and 1910. Provenance: bookplate of Bibliothek Hammer, Stockholm; David Kingsley collection; Clive A. Burden Ltd., July 2004; private English collection. Chubb (1927) no. 235; Hodson (1984-97) no. 258; Shirley (2004) T.Kit 5a.