1. Europe. Dated 1706 with the imprint of Henry Overton in two places, both over that of his father’s John.
2. Africa. Henry Overton imprint, no date.
3. Asia. Henry Overton imprint, no date.
4. America. Henry Overton imprint, no date. (California is an island) The America is reproduced in our advert for the recent issue of the Map Collector, unfortunately they messed up the photography. But you can get an idea of what it looks like. John Overton’s set of continental plates are known as the Overton-Lea and are most readily recognised by their diamond enclosed letters in the margins. Two of these are represented here in later unrecorded states, the Asia and Africa. The America and the Europe are entirely unrecorded. However, it is interesting to hypothesise about the events surrounding these maps.

A later set of continents by Henry Overton is known, so it seems likely that as the Europe bears signs of the imprint of John Overton, two of the plates were damaged at some point (Europe and America) and needed to be replaced. It is recorded that John Overton sold his stock and business to his son in 1707, and died in 1713. It certainly appears that the Europe at least was engraved by 1706. The America possibly at about that date as there appears to be no signs of any earlier imprint. The date of the Europe pre-dates his acquisition of the business indicating some joint involvement before. Maybe upon acquiring the business he abandoned old and mixed plates such as these and ordered fresh ones? We are selling these as a set, as we feel they are important as such, and should not be split up.