This is a very rare atlas. John Sharpe (1777-1860) describes in his Preface the purpose of the atlas, which was to reduce the confusion of many atlases that used up to fifty different scales throughout, to just four. He goes on to depict the globe in an unusual projection being in effect four gores on two sheets. The double page map of England and Wales features the already extensive railway network. The map showing the United States displays it extending to the Pacific Ocean following its cession after the Mexican War in 1848, however it is pre-Gadsden Purchase. The two of Africa record the latest knowledge of the interior. That of Australia depicts a prominent ‘Colony of South Australia’. The maps were engraved by Joseph Wilson Lowry (1803-79) who was especially known for more scientific works, he was also a founder member of the Royal Geographical Society. In 1850 the maps were re-issued in a different work entitled ‘Sharpe’s Students Atlas’. Provenance: Goldsworth Books and Prints; private English collection; Clive A. Burden Ltd. Catalogue IX (2012) item 17; private English collection. Phillips (1909-) 4327; Tooley (1999-2004); Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).