Francois Gerard Jollain (1660-c.1735) was an engraver and printseller in Paris. He was part of a family of engravers, map and printsellers. He was the son of Gerard Jollain (d.1683). Beneath the title of this rare work is written ‘par Gaspard Powell ingenieur dans larmee du Roy dangleterre et mis au jour en 1689’. This type of print whereby rows of topographical images are displayed is extremely rare but not unknown at the time. Peter Stent’s Catalogue of 1653 refers to ‘All the Cities of England in small’. It is only known by one example of a second state by John Overton which is bound into another work at the Ashmolean Library, Oxford. These complemented the fashion at the time for ‘carte et figures’, or maps with decorative illustrated borders.

The title here alludes to the artist, one Gaspard Powell, and engineer in the Royal army in 1689. The claim is that he drew all the images on location himself. Two rows each are devoted to images of England, Scotland and Ireland. Tooley’s Dictionary records the existence of a ‘Carte des Isles Britanniques’ by the same Jollain issued in the same year. There is only one recorded example of the map. Its dimensions are not dissimilar and it does not bear any surrounding views. It could be seen that the two plates were complimentary. The general map states that it was the work of ‘L. de Pontigny’, geographer to the King. It is interestingly dedicated to the Prince of Wales who would later become known as the Old Pretender in the first Jacobite Rebellion of 1715. It was his birth on 10 June 1688 which largely triggered the Glorious Revolution which overthrew James II in favour of the Protestant William III. They were no doubt issued to mark the attempt invasion of James II of Ireland Ireland from France.

Francois Jollain (1641-1704), who is likely in some way related, also published a general map of the British Isles in the same year 1689. This one does contain several town views, all unrelated, and is similarly extremely rare, surviving in just three known examples. Provenance: private English collection since c.1990. Globe p.229 & no. 361-2; Griffiths (1998) p. 191; Tooley’s Dictionary (1999-2004).