A rare issue of Speed's map of the West Riding of Yorkshire

SPEED, John.

The West Ridinge of Yorkshyre with The most famous and fayre Citie Yorke described 1610.
London: Roger Rea & Son, 1665. Coloured. 385 x 510mm.

Repairs in bottom edge.

John Speed's famous map of the West Riding, engraved by Jodocus Hondius in 1610 and first published in his county atlas, 'The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain', in 1611-12. The decorations include strapwork cartouches containing the title and plan of York, the Royal Crest and five 'Armes of such Royal Princes as have bourne the Title of Dukes of Yorke since the Normans Conquest', and a scale cartouche featuring a cherub with a pair of compasses. On the reverse is an English-text letterpress description 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.


Stock ID : 24004