This wonderful 18th-century sammelband includes a fascinating collection of plans and works that chronicle the development and history of London, particularly as relates to the Great Fire of 1666. It features:
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A New and Correct plan of the Cities of London, Westminster, and Borough of Southwark by Thomas Kitchin. Dated 1781 and published by R. Sayer & J. Bennett, this engraved folding map showcases the city from Islington to Newington Butts and from Stepney to Hyde Park. It includes detailed tables of buildings, parishes, and churches in the corners. Despite slight cropping at the heading and a few tears at the folds, the map is still very nice. Howgego 163 (4)
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A True and Exact Prospect of the Famous Citty of London; Another Prospect of the Said Citty Taken After the Sad Calamitie and Destruction by Fire" by Wenceslas Hollar. This 1666 engraved folding panorama, reissued by John Overton between 1669-1707, vividly depicts London both before and after the Great Fire. State iii
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Works by John Evelyn and Christopher Wren, which include Londinum redivivum presented to His Majesty shortly after the Great Fire, and A Plan of the City of London as envisioned in the restoration proposals by Sir Christopher Wren. These two folding engraved plans from 1748 (on four separate sheets), published by the Society of Antiquaries, offer a glimpse into the reconstruction ideas of the time.
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Description of the City of London by William Fitz-Stephen, newly translated from Latin by Samuel Pegge in 1772, provides a historical account with personal annotations by the translator.
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Fumifugium: or the Inconvenience of the Aer, and Smoake of London Dissipated by John Evelyn, reprinted in 1772. This edition features the editor’s name, "Thomas White Esq. F.R.S.," added in ink on the title page.
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This volume also contains a section on London extracted from Lysons' Magna Britannia.
Provenance
Benjamin White, South Lambeth. His ex-libris, dated 1777.
John White, Selbourne. His ex-libris.
George Soaper. His ex-libris.
Annotated in ink in an early hand, making correction and elaborations on title pages and elsewhere.
Thomas Kitchin was a British cartographer and engraver. Born in Southwark, England, Kitchin was the eldest of several children. He was apprenticed to the map engraver Emanuel Bowen from 1732 to 1739, and he married Bowen’s daughter, Sarah, in December 1739. By 1741 Kitchin was working independently and in 1746 he began taking on apprentices at his firm. His son Thomas Bowen Kitchin was apprenticed to him starting in 1754. By 1755 Kitchin was established in Holborn Hill, where his firm produced all kinds of engraved materials, including portraits and caricatures. He married his second wife, Jane, in 1762. Beginning in 1773 Kitchin was referred to as Hydrographer to the King, a position his son also later held. He retired to St. Albans and continued making maps until the end of his life.
A prolific engraver known for his technical facility, clean lettering, and impressive etched decorations, Kitchin produced several important works throughout his career. He produced John Elphinstone’s map of Scotland in 1746, and the first pocket atlas of Scotland, Geographia Scotiae, in 1748/1749. He co-published The Small English Atlas in 1749 with another of Bowen’s apprentices, Thomas Jefferys. He produced The Large English Atlas serially with Emanuel Bowen from 1749 to 1760. The latter was the most important county atlas since the Elizabethan era, and the first real attempt to cover the whole country at a large scale. In 1755 Kitchin engraved the important John Mitchell map of North America, which was used at the peace treaties of Paris and Versailles. In 1770 he produced the twelve-sheet road map England and Wales and in 1769–70 he produced Bernhard Ratzer’s plans of New York. In 1783, he published The Traveller’s Guide through England and Wales.