Very little is known about either George Cole or John Roper. The latter appears to have engraved the plates to the atlas from the drawings of Cole. Two however were not engraved by him, Cheshire and Caernarvonshire. The publishers were the established firm of Vernor, Hood and Sharpe who began publishing the ‘British Atlas’ in parts from October 1804. The maps were produced to accompany Britton and Brayley’s ‘Beauties of England and Wales’ issued from 1801, a statement to which effect is found on most of them. Its announcement appears in part 32 in May 1804. Each part issue of the ‘British Atlas’ contained two maps and usually one town plan, or three county maps. The maps were reduced from ‘original surveys … published by Mr. Faden whose permission was exclusively granted …’ The maps are very attractive and are here present with the reference to their original publication. The spine is interestingly dated 1812 which might provide a clue to some earlier lost evidence. Certainly the format would tend to lead us to believe that this is made up from the parts issue. It is known that the maps were issued in their own separate parts. Provenance: public auction. Beresiner pp. 88-90; Carroll no. 62; Chubb 339.