Henry Teesdale (1776-1855) was a successful publisher in London is best known for two English County atlases. In 1829, he acquired the county plates to Robert Rowe’s exceedingly rare ‘English Atlas’ and after revision published them as the ‘New British Atlas’. Encouraged by its undoubted success he embarked on a reduced sized county atlas which he published the following year entitled ‘A New Travelling Atlas’. In this work, the roads are made the principal feature. For some reason, it was not a great success, at least judging from the fact that only five known examples survive. For the second edition in 1843 plate numbers were added as were railways in the counties where they had been introduced.

Both series of copper plates became the property of Henry George Collins (fl.1832-58) and the ‘Travelling Atlas’ was re-issued with his imprint about 1849. By 1857 the business had failed and ownership of the atlas had passed to William Somerville Orr, whose one edition is given the date of c.1852 although possibly later. Then they passed into the hands of John Heywood who would issue several editions. This issue dates from 1868 which is generally accepted based on the state of the railway network depicted. Provenance: Doreen Green Collection; Clive A. Burden Ltd Catalogue XIV (2017) item 39; private English collection. Burgess (2009) no. 124; Carroll (1996) no. 92; refer Chubb (1927) no. 531; Smith (1997); Tooley’s Dictionary (1999-2004); Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).