A rare issue of Speed’s map of England and Wales

A map of England and Wales under the Stuart dynasty, with eight costume vignettes, published in Speed's county atlas, the 'Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain'. This is an example of the second plate, engraved by Abraham Goos in 1630 to replace worn-out plate that Jodocus Hondius had engraved for the first issues of the atlas in 1611. When it was engraved it was a close copy, but in 1646 a few changes were made to the plate, including a new date and hats on three of the figures reflecting the Puritan ascendancy. This example comes from the Roger Rea issue, which was beset with disaster: according to an advert for the 1676 Bassett & Chiswell edition, ''the greatest part of an Impression, then newly Printed, [was] destroyed by the late dreadful Fire, 1666". Surviving examples of any Rea map are thus rare.