Little is known about William Henry Reid. A W. H. Reid is listed in ‘Johnstone’s London Commercial Guide’ for 1818 as an ‘Appraiser & auct. 32, Charing-cross’. Further research found a William Henry Reid listed in the ‘Post Office London Commercial Directory’ for 1843 as an ‘architectural, engineering & scientific bookseller & publisher, 15 Charing Cross’. It is a reasonable assumption to conclude this is one and the same person. His name appears on the title page as publisher but many of the maps bear the imprints or James Wallis and C. Hinton. As Reid’s name does not appear on the maps they are often referred to as the Wallis-Reid maps.

James Wallis (fl.1810-25) was born it is believed in Southampton in 1784. He was apprenticed to John Roper in 1799 and freed on 5 February 1811. It appears he started out as an engraver becoming a bookseller, printer, stationer and publisher. He was at one point imprisoned for debt in 1835. Wallis had earlier produced the ‘New British Atlas’ in 1813 and ‘Wallis’s New Pocket Edition’ c.1812. His last atlas production was the plates for this work, ‘The Panorama’ of 1820. A number of the maps cite Wallis and Hinton as publisher which might indicate that towards the end of the project they sold the rights to W. H. Reid whose imprint appears as sole publisher on the title page. Wallis retained the printing rights. We know Wallis became bankrupt later but maybe his financial difficulties began much earlier. The maps are bound in rough alphabetical order as listed in the contents, the methodology is unclear. Each map is accompanied by extensive descriptive text. Chubb recorded ‘the only copy I have seen is in the possession of Dr. F. B. Penfold’, a rare atlas. This is an example of the first edition with imprints on twenty of the maps. Provenance: Donald Hodson collection (1933-2016), carto-bibliographer. Beresiner (1983) p. 234; Chubb (1927) 372; Tooley’s Dictionary (1999-2004); Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).