Berkshire Published 1665 - SOLD!
Original map of Berkshire by John Speed c1665 "to be solde by Roger Rea the Elder and younger at the Golden Crosse in Cornhill against ye Exchange" Rare Map of Berkshire county, Windsor, original John Speed, Roger Rea edition.
The only edition to be published by Roger Rea who changed all the imprint panels to accommodate the names of Roger Rea the Elder and Younger.
Copper Plate engraved, John Speed, London c1665.
Good condition, fine engraved copper plate on laid paper with hand colour
English text to verso, centre fold as issued, some old fold and creasing, small strengthen repairs to verso
Approx engraved area: 19.5" x 19" 390mm X 490mm
Notes: The map bears the imprint of Roger Rea the Elder and Younger. The Reas had purchased the rights to Speed's work from William Garrett in 1589, who had previously purchased them from the widow of William Humble in the same year. Skelton suggests that the father and son intended a new edition of the atlas for the Restoration of 1660. However, the atlas would appear not to have been published until 1665. This is borne out by an advertisement in the Term Catalogue by the subsequent owners of the plates, Thomas Bassett and Richard Chiswell, in 1675:
"Mr John Speed's... Geography of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland... together with his Prospect... all in one entire Volume, hath been, for seven Years past, out of Print, the greatest part of an Impression, then newly Printed, being destroyed by the late dreadful Fire, 1666". This is borne out by the rarity of the Rea edition of the atlas. There is evidence that they planned an edition of 1666, as there are impressions of Sussex, Buckingham and Derby, with Rea's imprint, which bear that date. Rea would later sell the plates to Bassett and Chiswell, who would publish a new edition in 1676.