James Wallis (fl.1810-25) was an engraver, printer and publisher in London. There were according to Worms and Baynton-Williams, three James Wallis’ active at the time who are often confused with each other. There is a bookseller (fl.1787-1807) of Ivy Lane and Paternoster Row and an engraver and jeweller of Fleet Street who became bankrupt in 1810. The belief is that this James Wallis was born in Southampton in 1784. He was apprenticed to John Roper in 1799 and made free 1811.

In about 1812 he first published ‘Wallis’s New Pocket Edition of the English Counties or Traveller’s Companion’. The maps are easily distinguished by the design of the title at the top of the map. They include a wealth of information with a key in the lower margin. In the first edition, the maps bear no plate numbers which were duly added for the second of c.1814 as here. In this example Yorkshire remains unnumbered. In 1813, he also produced the larger format ‘Wallis’s New British Atlas’ published by Samuel Augustus Oddy although dated 1812 on the title page. Their priority is unclear. Provenance: with inscriptions inside upper cover of ‘R. K. Harvey 1817 Thorpe’ and ‘Arthur E. Jackson 1887 Norwich’; David Kingsley collection 1989; Clive A. Burden Ltd.; private English collection. Beresiner (1983) pp. 234-7; Chubb (1927) 344; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).