From circa 1680 John Seller and John Oliver began publishing the first large scale 2 sheet maps of English counties with the notable exception of Joel Gascoyne’s 9 sheet map of Cornwall. Only a handful were produced before Robert Morden and Joseph Pask published this magnificent 2 sheet map of Essex at the scale of half an inch to the mile. Robert Morden began with a shop in London shortly after the Great Fire in 1666. His reputation is underrated; indeed Laurence Worms describes him as “a prolific and inventive map maker whose critical reputation despite a string of innovations, remains undeservedly low”. Joseph Pask was a stationer and publisher in London who may have been related to Robert Pask of the same profession. We first hear of Joseph when his name appears jointly in the imprint of the Robert Morden pack of playing cards of the counties of England and Wales issued as ‘A Pocket Book of all the Counties’ c.1680. Although he has been associated with John Thornton most of his collaborations are with Morden.

Although undated the map is undoubtedly issued later in Morden’s career on stylistic grounds if nothing else. The title claims to have placed the towns, seats and houses more accurately than any map before. The whole are placed within a longitudinal and latitudinal grid. London is placed in the lower left corner with Ipswich seen upper right. An Explanation to the left identifies both ‘Gentlemens Seates’ and ‘Mannors and Houses of Name’, the former with a larger house symbol. An accurate and detailed network of roads is shown with all the minor side roads identified. A scale bar above the imprints displays both the ‘Computed’ or Scottish mile and the ‘Measured’ or English mile. An ornate title cartouche lower right bears the dedication to the ‘Nobility and Gentry of Essex’. The map is given a circa date of 1700 as Morden died in 1703. Provenance: private English collection. Rodger (1972) 116; Tooley ‘Essex’ in ‘The Map Collector’ 36 pp. 36-8 E8.