An uncommon edition of Speed’s county map of Shropshire

John Speed's famous map of Shropshire, engraved by Jodocus Hondius in 1610 and first published in his county atlas, 'The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain', in 1611-12. It is decorated with a large frame containing the Royal arms, the arms of Roger Montgomery & John Talbot and a compass rose; a plan of Shrewsbury with an extensive key; and a vignette of the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, between Henry IV and Sir Henry Percy (Harry Hotspur). 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.