London and the Home Counties, Antique Map of Kent Surrey and Sussex, 1843
US$437
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1843
Mapmaker / artist
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, London; engraved by John and Charles Walker
Publisher
Charles Knight and Company, 22 Ludgate Street, London
Technique
Steel Engraving
Coloring
Original hand color
Sheet size
35 × 43.5 cm (13.8 × 17.1 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14487-2-14
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Moderate overall age toning, with the paper darker along the bottom edge, foxing through the margins, one or two spots larger than the rest, stains in the margins and handling wear to the top left and top right corners.
About this sheet
This antique map of 1843 is the fifth sheet of the Society's large map of England and Wales and covers the south east, with London at its center. The capital is engraved as a dense dark mass on both banks of the Thames, with the early railways radiating from it in heavy hatched lines to Brighton, Dover, Southampton, Colchester and the north. Kent runs out to the North Foreland and Dover, Sussex along the coast past Beachy Head and Brighton, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight at the lower left, and Surrey, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Essex, Berkshire and part of Oxfordshire complete the sheet. Hand applied color in pink, yellow, green, blue and red divides the counties. Across the Channel, which is lettered as Channel or La Manche, a strip of the French coast from Calais to Dieppe is engraved with its ports named, and the Dover Strait is given its French name as well as its English one.
The plate comes from Maps of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, in the new edition corrected to the present time that Charles Knight and Company published at 22 Ludgate Street, London, in 1845, whose first volume covers Europe. The Society was founded in 1826 by Henry Brougham and his circle to publish useful knowledge at a low price. Its maps were issued in parts from 1829, first by Baldwin and Cradock, from 1842 by Chapman and Hall and then by Charles Knight, and the series grew to about two hundred maps. Most of them were engraved on steel by John and Charles Walker, and the outline color was applied by hand.
The plate is signed by J. and C. Walker as engravers. The imprint at the foot names Charles Knight and Company of 22 Ludgate Street, London and is dated November 1843.
Moderate overall age toning, with the paper darker along the bottom edge, foxing through the margins, one or two spots larger than the rest, stains in the margins and handling wear to the top left and top right corners.
This is an original antique map, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
