EXTREMELY RARE. The origin of this series of copper plate county maps was until 1983 unknown. Joseph Allen was a publisher and engraver of 3 Hampden Str., Sommerstown, London. When originally uncovered, Yasha Beresiner identified the author as John Allen. It was in 1993 that Eugene Burden reported in private correspondence that he looked up the 1811 Directory and identified him as Joseph Allen (fl.1798-1821). Robert Rowe (c.1775-1843) had already engraved one series of county cards as a game for John Fairburn in 1798. Clearly encouraged, he persuaded Joseph Allen to produce another. Indeed, it appears from the second example of Fairburn cards, that Allen may already have been a partner or owner of that series. The maps are derived from the 1806 issue of John Cary’s ‘Traveller’s Companion’. There are now three known examples of the first state. Only two known examples of the second state survive.

The ensuing history is even rarer. Only two examples are recorded of John Thomson’s ‘New English Atlas’ 1823. These reside in the Bodleian Library and a private collection. Their final issue is this exceedingly rare work by Orlando Hodgson, the plates were unaltered. Undated, the work is now believed to have been published between 1826 and 1828, the years during which Hodgson is recorded at the Maiden Lane address in the Post Office London Directory. Orlando Hodgson was a part of the family firm of Hodgson and Company at 10 Newgate Street, London, in 1825. It seems he then operated under his own name from 21 Maiden Lane, London, from where he published this work. Only three institutional examples are known. The British Library (Maps 2.aa.4), Aberdeen University (Lib R 912(42) Hod) and the Bodleian Library (C.17.f.9) which lacks the title page and preliminaries. Provenance: Private English collection. Carroll (1996) 67; Chubb (1927) 371; Smith, David (1991d); Tooley’s Dictionary (1999-2004).