![[Florida and Gulf Coast] The Coast of West Florida and Louisiana . . . [with] The Peninsula and Gulf of Florida or Channel of Bahama with the Bahama Islands . . . By Thomas Jefferys](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/66344.jpg)
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Striking full color example of the Jefferys map of Florida and the Gulf Coast, from Jeffrey's West India Atlas.
The map is the first large format English map to treat the region with such remarkable detail, including soundings and rhumblines. This first state does not name the Bay of Spiritu Santo at the mouth of the Mississippi and a note that the water is shallow with many islands, but that little is known about the region.
The map was updated shortly after the first state, making the first quite rare on the market. The detail in Florida and the Bahamas is excellent as is the elaborate compass rose and sailing ships. A fine unjoined set of the maps in striking color. While the individual sheets appear periodically on the market, the pair together are now quite rare on the market, especially in full color. Stevens & Tree 26(a).
Thomas Jefferys (ca. 1719-1771) was a prolific map publisher, engraver, and cartographer based in London. His father was a cutler, but Jefferys was apprenticed to Emanuel Bowen, a prominent mapmaker and engraver. He was made free of the Merchant Taylors’ Company in 1744, although two earlier maps bearing his name have been identified.
Jefferys had several collaborators and partners throughout his career. His first atlas, The Small English Atlas, was published with Thomas Kitchin in 1748-9. Later, he worked with Robert Sayer on A General Topography of North America (1768); Sayer also published posthumous collections with Jefferys' contributions including The American Atlas, The North-American Pilot, and The West-India Atlas.
Jefferys was the Geographer to Frederick Prince of Wales and, from 1760, to King George III. Thanks especially to opportunities offered by the Seven Years' War, he is best known today for his maps of North America, and for his central place in the map trade—he not only sold maps commercially, but also imported the latest materials and had ties to several government bodies for whom he produced materials.
Upon his death in 1771, his workshop passed to his partner, William Faden, and his son, Thomas Jr. However, Jefferys had gone bankrupt in 1766 and some of his plates were bought by Robert Sayer (see above). Sayer, who had partnered in the past with Philip Overton (d. 1751), specialized in (re)publishing maps. In 1770, he partnered with John Bennett and many Jefferys maps were republished by the duo.
![The North Coast of the Gulf of Mexico from St. Marks to Galveston . . . 1844 . . . Additions to 1856, including the Surveys of Comr. Powell, Lt. Simmes & Profr. Coffin, U.S. Navy [and] St. Marks to Galveston. Sheet II. . . . 1845. Additions to 1851 . . . .](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/89497.jpg)
