• Title : An Accurate Map of Dorsetshire, Divided into its Hundreds. Drawn from the best Authorities, assisted by the most approved Maps and Charts with various Improvements illustrated with Historical Extracts relative to its Natural Produce, Manufactures, Trade, present state of it’s principal Towns and Sea Ports, by Eman Bowen geographer to His Majesty. 
• Date : 1760
  
• Size: 29in x 22 1/2in (750mm x 570mm)
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
• Ref:  35614

Description:
This large original beautifully hand coloured antique map of the English County of Dorset Shire by Emmanuel Bowen was published by Carrington Bowles in the 1760 edition of The Large English Atlas. (Ref: Tooley; M&B)

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Pink, blue, green, yellow
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 29in x 22 1/2in (750mm x 570mm)
Plate size: - 27 1/2in x 21 1/2in (700mm x 545mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning in margins
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background:
The Large English Atlas was, as its name suggests, a large folio series of county maps conceived in about 1749 but, because of financial problems, not completed until 1760. Hodson describes the atlas as by far the most important eighteenth-century English atlas to be published before the appearance of John Carys New And Correct English Atlas in 1787. Earlier county atlases were predominantly derivative, using old survey work, many in fact, traceable back to Saxtons work of the sixteenth century. The Large English Atlas maps were drawn from the most up-to-date surveys, and so mark an important stage in the development of the county atlas (Hodson). Through its commercial success, this atlas encouraged a new generation of county atlases, of both large and small scales, but of greater precision than before. The maps, drawn either by Emanuel Bowen or Thomas Kitchin, are finely produced. A particular feature is the vast amount of additional detail engraved in the blank areas around the map, lists of the landed gentry, descriptions of the towns, produce and other notable features of each county, and in some cases, fine insets of the county town. All have elaborate title cartouches, illustrating the produce of the county, rural scenes and so on, many signed by Antony Walker Jr. Besides the separately published multi-sheet maps of various counties these are the most detailed and most interesting county maps of the eighteenth century.