Lot 304: MOLL, HERMANN.

THE WORLD DESCRIBED; OR A NEW AND CORRECT SETT OF MAPS. LONDON: JOHN BOWLES, C.1763

Tall narrow folio (640 x 295mm.), 30 large double-page engraved folding maps of all parts of the world, hand-coloured in outline, printed contents leaf pasted on inside cover, modern half morocco, spine gilt, light staining along upper edge, most maps strengthened at folds, several slightly split at folds, map of Italy with tear, some light discoloration

PROVENANCE

John Yerbury Dent, sale in these rooms, 8 April 1974, lot 184, £750, Charles W. Traylen, Guildford, Surrey, for Lord Wardington

LITERATURE

cf. Shirley, British Library T.MOLL-4a

NOTE

A late edition of Moll's World Described, first published in 1714. This copy was apparently assembled circa 1763, at the end of the Seven Years' War (known as the French and Indian War in North America).

With a couple of exceptions, the individual maps are in their final state, in some cases bearing the joint imprint of John Bowles & Son, who worked in partnership from circa 1755 to 1763. Other maps bear the imprint of Robert Sayer, who took over Philip Overton's business from Overton's widow, Mary, circa 1748/9, thus acquiring Overton's interest in these maps.

The North America map is a hitherto un-remarked late state, not described inter-alia by Stevens in his carto-bibliography of the World Described, retaining the c.1733 imprint but with the eastern portions of the map re-engraved (the only reference to these changes found is the Canadian National Archives Map Catalogue, which records these changes on a later state, which bears the imprint of Carington Bowles and Robert Sayer). The Great Lakes have been re-engraved, particularly Lakes Superior and Huron, with the province of Quebec (laid out in the Treaty of Paris, 1763) inserted, southern Nova Scotia re-engraved in Nathaniel Blackmore's hammer shape, rather than the early pointed form, and Halifax (founded in 1749) marked. The parallel boundaries of the southern English colonies have been inserted extending to the Mississippi, with the names of the colonies of N. Yord, Pensilvania and Virginia re-engraved, and N. Carolina, S. Carolina and Georgia named. Louisiana is now shown confined west of the Mississippi, and a number of names, including "F. Duquene" added in the interior.

"It is interesting to me, with my connection with Lloyds Bank that John Bowles' shop and sign of the Black Horse should have become part of the site of the Bank's Head Office, and that the sign should have become its emblem. It is perhaps just worth recording here that 'signs' were, had been, and continued to be, hung up to mark the premises, as messengers were for the most part illiterate and the sign served as a pictorial guide in finding the right place: these signs had originally no armorial significance, though later in many cases they were incorporated in Coats of Arms" (Wardington Catalogue).