British Topography

Rare British Topographical Books are often crammed with maps and engraved plates, and can be notorious from a bibliographical point of view for the trickiness of their collation and the disparities to be found therein... However, if found in good order and in a decent contemporary leather binding, they are highly respected and sought-after to this day.

The chorographical essays of antiquarians such as William Camden (Britannia, 1586), William Harrison (Description of Britain, 1587) and John Stow (Survey of London, 1598) combined the mapping and physical describing of Britain's regions, cities, towns and rural areas with elements from historical sources including local customs and folklore. These were compiled to create compendious volumes, often in large quarto or folio format, that engaged and educated readers, paving the way for subsequent topographical works such as the county history series.

County directories and printed 'itineraries' became popular in the later half of the 18th century, with prolific printer/publishers such as John Cary producing British Topographical Books in a variety of formats, including pocket-sized for convenient reference whilst travelling.

The popularity of books on British topography was transformed by the adoption of steel engraving, which allowed for a much larger number of strikes to be taken from an original plate than the softer copper-plate primarily used up until the end of the 18th century. This allowed for books to be produced more quickly and cheaply, leading to an upsurge in British Topographical Books being produced in the early part of the 19th century. Topographical books engraved by etchers such as the Finden brothers, after artists including Thomas Allom and Samuel Prout, were extremely popular in their time, but today are only really considered valuable if collatable as complete, ideally in very good condition, and in their original bindings or attractively rebound.

For more works on paper relating to British Topography, please visit our 16th-19th Century Works on Paper page.