1776 Taylor & Skinner’s Survey & Maps of Scotland; 1st Edition Complete 61 Maps

Description: Taylor & Skinner’s Survey and Maps of the Roads of North Britain, or, Scotland. To HIs Grace John Duke of Argyll, Commander in Chief of His Majesty’s Forces in North Britain, &c. &c. &c. This Work is most Humbly Inscribed by His Grace’s Most Obliged & very humble Servants, George Taylor & Andrew Skinner. London: Publish’d for the Authors as the Act directs the 20th, March, 1887, & Sold by D. Wilson & G. Nicol, Strand, Jas. Phillips, George Yard, Lombard Street, Andn. Duty, Dukes Court, St. Martins Lane, & T. Durham, Cockspur Street & by all the Booksellers in Scotland, Price 12 Shillings. First Edition. No pagination, 61 fold-out engraved maps (complete work) measuring 18.5 x 9” when unfolded, contemporary & fine half-calf marbled binding measuring 9.25 x 9.25”, large octavo. In fair condition. Fine & modern binding lightly rubbed at edges and corners of boards. Head and tail of leather spine rubbed; gilt lettering and ruling bright and clean. Original front and rear end-pages lightly toned and chipped at fore-edges. Normal toning throughout text-block; mostly at edges of leaves. Some light off-setting to any blank leaves adjacent to engravings. Frontispiece fold-out map (A General Map of the Roads of Scotland) exhibits a tear above center crease, close to tail of text-block’s gutter (see Photo #7). All other fold-out maps are intact; some exhibiting light chipping/toning at fore-edges. Fold-out leaf containing Maps 59/60 exhibit water dampness staining at top/bottom corners (depending on which map). Maps overall attractive. Modern binding tight and intact. Please see photos and ask questions, if any, before purchasing. Although John Ogilby had published a strip road atlas for England and Wales a century earlier, George Taylor and Andrew Skinner's volume was essentially Scotland's first road atlas. It consists of 61 plates showing roads across Scotland at the one-inch to the mile scale, covering some 3,000 miles in total, with each page divided into three vertical strips of a particular road. The volume was designed to be folded into a portable accessory for the growing number of travelers and visitors in Scotland. Taylor and Skinner were originally surveyors in Aberdeen, and whilst the latter was resident in Edinburgh during the 1770s, they went on to work in Ireland in the later 1770s, before heading west to America by the 1780s. Although they were assisted financially by the Commissioners for the Forfeited Estates, and by subscriptions (some no doubt from the landed gentry whose names and properties were shown along many of the roads) in 1778 they reported that nearly half the 3,000 published copies of their Survey were unsold, and they therefore had debts still to repay. The maps show the detail of routeways including the new military roads in the Highlands (with their relative absence of other detailed maps) and, through their criss-cross network of Great Roads and Cross Roads, covering much of Lowland Scotland to supplement contemporary county mapping. All the pages fold out concertina style, horizontally, with a map on each side of the page. Prelim pages (also folding) consist of title page bearing engraving and dedication to the Duke of Argyll, then Index of the Cities, Towns and Villages on the Great Roads, then A List of the Stages of the Great Roads, then 61 engraved maps of the roads showing towns and villages, topographical features, distances etc. FIRST EDITION, Finely bound. COMPLETE WITH ALL MAPS (61 TOTAL)! RAREB1776HTUC 07/24 - HK1836

Price: 1250 USD

Location: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

End Time: 2024-11-08T16:22:52.000Z

Shipping Cost: 7.63 USD