AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE & LARGE WALL MAP OF LONDON
WILLIAM MORGAN’S 1682 MAP OF LONDON
AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE & LARGE WALL MAP OF LONDON
WILLIAM MORGAN’S 1682 MAP OF LONDON
Dimensions:
Width. 245cm
Height. 145cm
London. Morgan (William), London &c. Actually Survey'd..., This survey was begun by Mr. Ogilby, and finished & humbly dedicated by Wm. Morgan..., A prospect of London and Westminster taken at several stations to the southward thereof, by Robt. Morden & Phil. Lea, London Topographical Society, 1904, monumental black & white, highly decorative photolithographic 12 sheet map.
After the great fire of London in 1666, the majority of the city was reduced to a pile of rubble and ash.
From that blank slate, a new and modern city was allowed to grow. William Morgan’s 1682 Map of London was the first complete survey of the city after the fire and illustrated the idealized version of an ordered and beautiful landscape, on par or better than most major cities of the day. The survey took 16 years to complete, and the 16 finished copper engravings produce an assembled wall map eight feet wide by five feet tall.
The prospect (panorama) by Robert Morden and Phillip Lee presents a view of the Thames as if it were stretched out straight, and is the first time every structure and wharf, significant or not, was illustrated. It was printed on four separate sheets and designed to be displayed either at the top or bottom of the map depending on the taste of the owner.
The 1904 London Topographical Society, took the original sixteen copper engravings and combined and reduced them down to twelve lithographic plates you see here.
The panoramic drawing along the bottom of the map has tiny, circled index numbers for many of the prominent towers throughout the city. These match up to the two references on sheets ten and eleven.
The title banner along the top attributes the map to: “W’m. Morgan, his Ma’ties Cofmog’r.” This is an abbreviation of “William Morgan, His Majesty’s Cosmographer.”
Along the left margin, dedications to heads of state are written inside of a pear tree. Along the right margin, dedications to bishops are written inside of grapes.
The Artillery Grounds (right middle of sheet 2) features soldiers in battle formation.
This is the first accurate and detailed map of London, with all the buildings represented in plan rather than as bird's eye views" (British Library Catalogue of the Crace Collection)
The plan was not Ogilby and Morgan's alone: Wenceslaus Hollar was responsible for a great deal of the engraving, and Gregory King, under direction of Ogilby, appears to have engraved large portions also.
PRICE: £9,800
