• Title : Cestria Vvlgo Chester Angliae Civitas
• Ref #:  27092
• Size: 18 1/2in x 14in (470mm x 355mm)
• Date : 1574
• Condition: (A) Very Good Condition

Description:
This original beautifully hand coloured copper plate engraved antique map, a birds eye view of the city of Chester in Cheshire, England, was published in the 1574 edition of Braun & Hogenbergs atlas Civitates Orbis Terrarum

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 18 1/2in x 14in (470mm x 355mm)
Plate size: - 15 1/2in x 12 3/4in (390mm x 325mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Several small worm holes restored in margins
Plate area: - Several small worm holes restored
Verso: - Several small worm holes restored

• Title : The South Part of Great Britain called England & Wales...by Herman Moll 1710
• Size: 39in x 24in (1.0m x 610mm)
• Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
• Date : 1710
• Ref #:  80662

Description:
This large beautifully hand coloured original copper-plate engraved antique map of England & Wales was engraved in 1710 by Herman Moll - the date is engraved in the title cartouche - and was published by John Bowles of London.

Striking large format, one off published, map of England and Wales. The map is embellished with two large cartouches and an extensive table locating all ye Cities, Market Towns, Boroughs and whateve Places in South Britain have ye Election of Members of Parliament.
The map is elaborately colored by counties, with 5 sailing ships to the right of Northumberland. Includes a dedication to Right Honourable FRANCIS, Lord Viscount Rialton in the cartouche at the right side of the map.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 39in x 24in (1.0m x 610mm)
Plate size: - 38in x 23in (970mm x 585mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Light age toning along folds
Verso: - Repairs along folds

Background: 
English Cartography: When considering the work of English map makers we tend, perhaps, to think too much in terms of county maps, dominated by the names of Saxton and Speed, but we should not underrate the contribution to the sum of geographical knowledge made in other spheres, such as the sea charts of Edward Wright, Robert Dudley and Greenvile Collins, the discoveries of James Cook, the road maps of Ogilby and Cary, the meteorological and magnetic charts compiled by Edmund Halley, to mention only a few.
In 1558 Queen Elizabeth came to the throne in the midst of a fast changing world. In 1563 a nineteen sheet map, copies of which survive only in manuscript form, was completed by Laurence Nowell, and no doubt, the issue of Mercators large-scale map of the British Isles in 1564 had an important influence on the thought of the period. A few years later a national survey was commissioned privately, although probably at the instigation of Lord Burghley, the Lord Treasurer, but subsequently was completed with royal encouragement. The outcome was Christopher Saxtons Atlas of EngIand and Wales, started about 1570 and published in 1579 - the first printed set of county maps and the first countrywide atlas on such a splendid scale produced anywhere. A Welsh antiquarian, Humphrey Lhuyd completed a set of surveys that were even more successful than Saxton in which he had produced fine manuscript maps of England and Wales which were used by Ortelius in editions of his Atlas from 1573 onwards.
The earliest maps of the 17th century, attributed to William Smith of the College of Heralds, covered only twelve counties based on Saxton/Norden and were presumably intended to be part of a complete new atlas. They were printed in the Low Countries in 1602-3 and were soon followed by maps for the Latin edition of Camdens Britannia dated 1607. In 1610-11 the first edition of John Speeds famous county Atlas The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine was published and immediately replaced Saxtons in popular appeal. Although Speed assembled much of his material from the earlier works of Saxton, Norden and others, a considerable part of the up-to-date information, especially relating to the inset town plans depicted on his maps, was obtained first hand. The maps undoubtedly owed much of their popularity to the splendid engravings of high quality made in the workshops in Amsterdam of Jodocus Hondius to whom Speed sent his manuscripts, the plates subsequently being returned to London for printing.
In 1645, Volume IV of the famous Blaeu World Atlas covering the counties of England and Wales was published in Amsterdam. These maps have always been esteemed as superb examples of engraving and design, the calligraphy being particularly splendid, but nevertheless they were nearly all based on Saxton and Speed and added little to geographical knowledge.
Not until the latter part of the century do we find an English map maker of originality with the capacity to put new ideas into practice. John Ogilby, one of the more colourful figures associated with cartography, started life as a dancing master and finished as Kings Cosmographer and Geographic Printer. After publishing a small number of county maps, somewhat on the lines of John Norden he issued in 1675 the Britannia, the first practical series of detailed maps of the post roads of England and Wales on a standard scale of 1,760 yards to the mile. Up to the end of the century and beyond, reprints and revisions of Saxtons and Speeds atlases continued to appear and the only other noteworthy county maps were Richard Blomes Britannia (1673), John Overtons Atlas (c. 1670) and Robert Mordens maps for an English translation of Camdens Britannia published in 1695.
Another noted cartographer of the day was Captain Greenvile Collins, and of his work in surveying the coasts of Great Britain culminating in the issue in 1693 of the Great Britains Coasting Pilot. Apart from these charts, English cartographers published during the century a number of world atlases. Speed was the first Englishman to produce a world atlas with the issue in 1627 of his A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World. Other atlases appeared later in the century by Peter Heylin, John Seller, William Berry, Moses Pitt and Richard Blome, whilst Ogilby found time to issue maps of Africa, America and Asia. Far more important, from the purely scientific point of view, was the work of Edmund Halley, Astronomer Royal, who compiled and issued meteorological and magnetic charts in 1688 and 1701 respectively.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Dutch map trade was finally in decline, the French in the ascendant and the English to a great extent still dominated by Saxton and Speed except, as we have shown, in the spheres of sea charts and road maps. There were atlases by John Senex, the Bowles family, Emanuel and Thomas Bowen, Thomas Badeslade and the unique birds-eye perspective views of the counties, The British Monarchy by George Bickham. In 1750-60 Bowen and Kitchins The Large English Atlas containing maps on a rather larger scale than hitherto was published.
In 1759 the Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce offered an award of £100 for the best original surveys on this scale and by the end of the century about thirty counties had been re-surveyed. These maps, many of which formed, in later years, the basis for the first issues of county maps by the Ordnance Survey Office were not only decorative but a tremendous improvement geographically on earlier local maps. As a consequence, the skills and expertise of the new-style cartographers soon enabled them to cover the world as well as the domestic market. Thomas Jefferys was such a man; he was responsible for a number of the new 1 in. to 1 mile county surveys and he issued an edition of Saxtons much battered 200-year-old plates of the county maps, but he is better known for many fine maps of North America and the West Indies. His work was continued on the same lines by William Faden, trading as Faden and Jefferys. Other publishers such as Sayer and Bennett and their successors Laurie and Whittle published a prodigious range of maps, charts and atlases in the second half of the century. A major influence at this time was John Cary who, apart from organizing the first re-survey of post roads since Ogilby and subsequently printing the noted Travellers Companion, was a prolific publisher of atlases and maps of every kind of all parts of the world. After starting work with Cary, and taking part in the new road survey, Aaron Arrowsmith set up in his own business and went on to issue splendid large-scale maps of many parts of the world. Both Carys and Arrowsmiths plates were used by other publishers until far into the next century and, in turn, their work was taken up and developed by James Wyld (Elder and Younger) and Tallis and Co.
Later into the 19th century some of the better known cartographers and publishers were by Henry Teesdale (1829-30), Christopher and John Greenwood, surveyors, Thomas Moule, a writer on heraldry and antiques (1830-36) and John Walker (1837) but by about the middle of the century few small-scale publishers survived and their business passed into the hands of large commercial concerns such as Bartholomews of Edinburgh and Philips of London who continue to this day. (Ref: Shirley; Tooley; M&B)

• Title : Midle-sex Described with the most Famous Cities of London and Westminster
• Date : 1676
  
• Size: 20 1/4in x 16 3/4in (515mm x 425mm)
• Condition: (B) Good Condition
• Ref:  35613

Description:
This original hand coloured copper plate engraved antique map & views of London and the English county of Middlesex by John Speed was published in the 1676 Bassett & Chiswell edition of Speeds famous atlas The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine.
The map is embellished with the famous birds-eye views of London, Westminster and the churches of St Peters (Westminster Abbey) and old St Pauls before the great fire of London in 1666. English descriptive text of London on the verso.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Blue, yellow, green, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 20 1/4in x 16 3/4in (515mm x 425mm)
Plate size: - 20 1/4in x 15 1/2in (515mm x 410mm)
Margins: - Min 1/8in (2mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - L&R margins cropped to plate-marks
Plate area: - Re-enforced along centerfold very small loss in places, light creasing
Verso: - Re-enforced along centerfold and in several places with transparent archival tape

Background:
This county map of Middlesex, now greater London, illustrates the market towns of Enfield, Pancras, Osterley and Staines. The map is dominated by four large vignettes with the environs of London and the county situated in the central portion of the map. The actual cartography is based on the surveys performed by John Norden, the earlier English antiquary and map maker, who unsuccessfully attempted to publish an updated county atlas of the United Kingdom before Speed. Norden also lived most of his life in Middlesex, thus becoming an obvious source for the map.
The City of London is clearly shown on the lower right of the map with villages such as Hamsted, Pancras, Kensington and Paddington marked around the city. To the lower centre of the map is an acknowledgement to the original survey by Norden, augmented by Speed himself.
Although the cartography is of some note, it is the vignettes for which this map is justly famous. To the two bottom corners are the famous Churchs of St. Peter (Westminster Abbey) Westminster on the left and St. Pauls to the right. This is the medieval Cathedral of St. Pauls, just after it had lost its spire in 1561 and before the Great Fire of 1666, in which it was destroyed then rebuilt in its present form by Sir Christopher Wren. Above these two church vignettes are two text panels in the form of books, the one on the left describing the two churches and the other on the right with a description of London itself.
Finally, two large vignettes on the upper left and right corners depict the two cities of Westminster and London respectively. It is believed that Speed was not responsible for either of these images, more likely drawing from Norden, although there are no surviving evidence of this, to date yet to be found. There are also theories that these two views may have come from either a German sources or other lost birds-eye views of London by unknown persons.
Due to modern growth of London and border changes, the county of Middlesex no longer exists, but there is little doubt this is the most the best map of London and Middlesex published in the 17th century. English text on verso

• Title : Midlesex
• Date : 1722
  
• Size: 17 1/2in x 15 1/2in (445mm x 395mm)
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
• Ref:  35603

Description:
This original hand coloured copper-plate engraved antique map of the county of Middlesex and London by Robert Morden was published in the 1722 edition of Camdens Britannia.

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: - 17 1/2in x 15 1/2in (445mm x 395mm)
Plate size: - 17 1/2in x 15 1/2in (445mm x 395mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background:
These maps are the first county maps to show roads (based on Ogilby’s road maps) and show three scales representing great, middle and small miles as different scales were used in different parts of the country. Morden was employed to replace the outdated maps by Saxton, engraved by Kip and Hole. He based his maps on manuscript sources plus the surveys of Ogilby and Morgan, Seller, Palmer and the coastal charts of Captain Grenville Collins. One innovation was the showing of longitudes measured from the meridian of St. Paul's Cathedral given in the form of time in minutes at the top of the map in Roman numerals and at the bottom in degrees. This was done to clarify local times that were taken from the sun as there was no national standard time. Gibson said:' Where actual Surveys could be had, they were purchased at any rate; and for the rest, one of the best Copies extanct was sent to some of the most knowing Gentlemen in each County; with a request to supply the defects, rectified the positions, and correct the false spellings. And that nothing might be wanting to render them as complete and accurate as might be, this whole business was commited to Mr Robert Morden, a person of know abilities in these matters'..from the Preface of the Britannia.

• Title : Carte de l entree de la Tamise avec les bancs, passes, isles et costes comprises entre Sandwich et Clay. (Map of the Thames estuary entry with the banks, streets, islands and coasts between Sandwich and Clay)
• Size: 37 1/2in x 25 1/2in (950mm x 650mm)
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
• Date : 1693
• Ref #:  93356

Description:
This large beautifully hand coloured original 1693 antique sea-chart, map of SE England from Clay, Norfolk, to Sandwich and the entrance of the Thames Estuary by A H Jaillot was published in his large elephant folio Le Neptune Francois, ou Atlas Nouveau des Cartes Marines

Handsome sea-chart illustrating the importance of this region to Englands dominance by its navy. Shows the Thames Estuary & river to London, showing many sandbars, soundings and coastline, blank verso.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 37 1/2in x 25 1/2in (950mm x 650mm)
Plate size: - 36in x 18in (930mm x 460mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

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

• Title : Pascaarte van Engelant van t' Voorlandt tot aen Blakeney waer in te Sien is de Mont vande Teemse
• Date : 1676
• Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
• Ref:  42012
• Size: 22in x 18in (560mm x 455mm)

Description: 
This large, beautifully hand coloured original antique map, a fine early Dutch sea chart of the Thames River and surrounding English coastline, was published by Pieter Goos in 1676 for the Goos De Zee-Atlas, Ofte Water-Weereld, Atlas. 

This chart is oriented with north to the right includes in the upper right is a large inset of the Thames River and plan of London. Beautifully engraved with original coulouring embellished with rhumb lines, two compass roses and a galleon under sail. (Ref: Tooley; M&B; Koeman)

General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Original 
Colors used: - Yellow, green, red, rose madder, red
General color appearance: - Authentic and fresh
Paper size: - 22in x 18in (560mm x 455mm)
Plate size: - 22in x 18in (560mm x 455mm)
Margins: - Min ½in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Top L&R margin corner ink spill not affecting image
Plate area: - None
Verso: - Light soiling

• Title : Le Royaume d'Angleterre Distingue en Ses Provinces...1693
• Size: 33in x 24in (840m x 610mm)
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
• Date : 1693
• Ref #:  17059

Description:
This large beautifully hand coloured original 1693 1st edition antique map of England & Wales by A H Jaillot - after Nicolas Sanson - was engraved in 1693 - the date is engraved in the title and was published by Jaillot in his large elephant folio Atlas Nouveau.
An original first state of this handsome map of England and Wales, that includes the east coast of Ireland's, southern Scotland, the Channel Islands, and a stretch of French coastline south to Paris. England and Wales are divided into their local counties, with highly detailed information on towns, cities, rivers, and topographical information.
The stunning decorative title cartouche features the United Kingdom coat-of-arms with a banner underneath reading Je Maintiendray ("I will maintain," which is strangely enough the motto of the Netherlands), along with trumpeting angels, mermen, and symbols of military might. A second cartouche flanked by putti encloses the six distance scales. A compass rose capped with a fleur-de-lis appears in the Irish Sea. Jaillot, in partnership with the sons of Nicolas Sanson, re-engraved Nicolas's Sanson's map on a larger scale in the 1680's. This particular map was published a few years later in the 1690's, and while based on Sanson's cartography (who is credited in the cartouche), it is a Jaillot composition. Also included is an alternate title running along the top neatline: Le Royaume d'Angleterre, Distingue en Ses Provinces; Scavoir en Northumberland, Mercie, East-Angles, Essex, Kent, Sussex, West-Sex, et la Principaute de Galles.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original & later
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 33in x 24in (840m x 610mm)
Plate size: - 31 1/4in x 23in (795mm x 585mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background: 
English Cartography: When considering the work of English map makers we tend, perhaps, to think too much in terms of county maps, dominated by the names of Saxton and Speed, but we should not underrate the contribution to the sum of geographical knowledge made in other spheres, such as the sea charts of Edward Wright, Robert Dudley and Greenvile Collins, the discoveries of James Cook, the road maps of Ogilby and Cary, the meteorological and magnetic charts compiled by Edmund Halley, to mention only a few.
In 1558 Queen Elizabeth came to the throne in the midst of a fast changing world. In 1563 a nineteen sheet map, copies of which survive only in manuscript form, was completed by Laurence Nowell, and no doubt, the issue of Mercator's large-scale map of the British Isles in 1564 had an important influence on the thought of the period. A few years later a national survey was commissioned privately, although probably at the instigation of Lord Burghley, the Lord Treasurer, but subsequently was completed with royal encouragement. The outcome was Christopher Saxton's Atlas of EngIand and Wales, started about 1570 and published in 1579 - the first printed set of county maps and the first countrywide atlas on such a splendid scale produced anywhere. A Welsh antiquarian, Humphrey Lhuyd completed a set of surveys that were even more successful than Saxton in which he had produced fine manuscript maps of England and Wales which were used by Ortelius in editions of his Atlas from 1573 onwards.
The earliest maps of the 17th century, attributed to William Smith of the College of Heralds, covered only twelve counties based on Saxton/Norden and were presumably intended to be part of a complete new atlas. They were printed in the Low Countries in 1602-3 and were soon followed by maps for the Latin edition of Camden's Britannia dated 1607. In 1610-11 the first edition of John Speed's famous county Atlas The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine was published and immediately replaced Saxton's in popular appeal. Although Speed assembled much of his material from the earlier works of Saxton, Norden and others, a considerable part of the up-to-date information, especially relating to the inset town plans depicted on his maps, was obtained first hand. The maps undoubtedly owed much of their popularity to the splendid engravings of high quality made in the workshops in Amsterdam of Jodocus Hondius to whom Speed sent his manuscripts, the plates subsequently being returned to London for printing.
In 1645, Volume IV of the famous Blaeu World Atlas covering the counties of England and Wales was published in Amsterdam. These maps have always been esteemed as superb examples of engraving and design, the calligraphy being particularly splendid, but nevertheless they were nearly all based on Saxton and Speed and added little to geographical knowledge.
Not until the latter part of the century do we find an English map maker of originality with the capacity to put new ideas into practice. John Ogilby, one of the more colourful figures associated with cartography, started life as a dancing master and finished as King's Cosmographer and Geographic Printer. After publishing a small number of county maps, somewhat on the lines of John Norden he issued in 1675 the Britannia, the first practical series of detailed maps of the post roads of England and Wales on a standard scale of 1,760 yards to the mile. Up to the end of the century and beyond, reprints and revisions of Saxton's and Speed's atlases continued to appear and the only other noteworthy county maps were Richard Blome's Britannia (1673), John Overton's Atlas (c. 1670) and Robert Morden's maps for an English translation of Camden's Britannia published in 1695.
Another noted cartographer of the day was Captain Greenvile Collins, and of his work in surveying the coasts of Great Britain culminating in the issue in 1693 of the Great Britain's Coasting Pilot. Apart from these charts, English cartographers published during the century a number of world atlases. Speed was the first Englishman to produce a world atlas with the issue in 1627 of his A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World. Other atlases appeared later in the century by Peter Heylin, John Seller, William Berry, Moses Pitt and Richard Blome, whilst Ogilby found time to issue maps of Africa, America and Asia. Far more important, from the purely scientific point of view, was the work of Edmund Halley, Astronomer Royal, who compiled and issued meteorological and magnetic charts in 1688 and 1701 respectively.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Dutch map trade was finally in decline, the French in the ascendant and the English to a great extent still dominated by Saxton and Speed except, as we have shown, in the spheres of sea charts and road maps. There were atlases by John Senex, the Bowles family, Emanuel and Thomas Bowen, Thomas Badeslade and the unique bird's-eye perspective views of the counties, The British Monarchy by George Bickham. In 1750-60 Bowen and Kitchin's The Large English Atlas containing maps on a rather larger scale than hitherto was published.
In 1759 the Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce offered an award of £100 for the best original surveys on this scale and by the end of the century about thirty counties had been re-surveyed. These maps, many of which formed, in later years, the basis for the first issues of county maps by the Ordnance Survey Office were not only decorative but a tremendous improvement geographically on earlier local maps. As a consequence, the skills and expertise of the new-style cartographers soon enabled them to cover the world as well as the domestic market. Thomas Jefferys was such a man; he was responsible for a number of the new 1 in. to 1 mile county surveys and he issued an edition of Saxton's much battered 200-year-old plates of the county maps, but he is better known for many fine maps of North America and the West Indies. His work was continued on the same lines by William Faden, trading as Faden and Jefferys. Other publishers such as Sayer and Bennett and their successors Laurie and Whittle published a prodigious range of maps, charts and atlases in the second half of the century. A major influence at this time was John Cary who, apart from organizing the first re-survey of post roads since Ogilby and subsequently printing the noted Travellers' Companion, was a prolific publisher of atlases and maps of every kind of all parts of the world. After starting work with Cary, and taking part in the new road survey, Aaron Arrowsmith set up in his own business and went on to issue splendid large-scale maps of many parts of the world. Both Cary's and Arrowsmith's plates were used by other publishers until far into the next century and, in turn, their work was taken up and developed by James Wyld (Elder and Younger) and Tallis and Co.
Later into the 19th century some of the better known cartographers and publishers were by Henry Teesdale (1829-30), Christopher and John Greenwood, surveyors, Thomas Moule, a writer on heraldry and antiques (1830-36) and John Walker (1837) but by about the middle of the century few small-scale publishers survived and their business passed into the hands of large commercial concerns such as Bartholomews of Edinburgh and Philips of London who continue to this day. (Ref: Shirley; Tooley; M&B)

• Titles: Map of the Empire of Germany, Including All the States Comprehend under that name: with the Kingdom of Priussia &c.
  Sizes: 48 1/2in x 41in (1.230m x 1.040m)
  
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
• Date: 1759
• Ref #:  93418

Description:
This stunning very large, scare and original copper-plate engraved antique 1st edition wall map of Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Prussia, Poland, Hungary, Netherlands and Northern Italy by the English cartographers Louis d arcy Delarochette & Thomas Kitchin (engraver) was published by Robert Sayer in 1759.
Incredibly detailed map of central Europe showing political boundaries as they were in the mid 18th century. Much detail noting roadways, towns, castles, monasteries, forests, swamps, rivers, towns, cities, mountains and much more. An incredible insight into mid 18th century Europe.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 48 1/2in x 41in (1.230m x 1.040m)
Plate size: - 48 1/2in x 41in (1.230m x 1.040m)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background:
Louis d Arcy Delarochette 1731 - 1802 was a British cartographer active in the mid to late 18th century. Collaborated with many famous British cartographers including Kitchin, Faden, Laurie & Whittle and Thomas Jefferies. Well know for his large scale maps.

Robert Sayers 1724 - 1794 was an important English map publisher and engraver active from the mid to late 18th century. Sayer was born in Sunderland, England, in 1725. He may have clerked as a young man with the Bank of England, but this is unclear. His brother, James Sayer, married Mary Overton, daughter-in-law of John Overton and widow of Philip Overton. Sayer initially worked under Mary Overton, but by December of 1748 was managing the Overton enterprise and gradually took it over, transitioning the plates to his own name. When Thomas Jefferys went bankrupt in 1766, Sayer offered financial assistance to help him stay in business and, in this way, acquired rights to many of the important Jefferys map plates as well as his unpublished research. From about 1774, he began publishing with his apprentice, John Bennett (fl. 1770-1784), as Sayer and Bennett, but the partnership was not formalized until 1777. Bennett retired in 1784 following a mental collapse and the imprint reverted to Robert Sayer. From 1790, Sayer added Robert Laurie and James Whittle to his enterprise, renaming the firm Robert Sayer and Company. Ultimately, Laurie and Whittle partnered to take over his firm. Sayer retired to Bath, where, after a long illness, he died. During most of his career, Sayer was based at 53 Fleet Street, London. His work is particularly significant for its publication of many British maps relating to the American Revolutionary War. Unlike many map makers of his generation, Sayer was a good businessman and left a personal fortune and great estate to his son, James Sayer, who never worked in the publishing business.