A rare issue of Speed’s map of Lancashire

A fine example of one of the most decorative maps of Lancashire, engraved by Jodocus Hondius in 1610 for John Speed's county atlas, the 'Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain'. It has an inset plan of Lancaster and portraits of the members of the royal houses of York and Lancaster, whose feud caused the 'War of the Roses'. An English text on the reverse gives a history of the county. This example comes from the Roger Rea issue of the atlas, 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.