Rare separately issued broadside map of Africa, celebrating the activities of the Royal Africa Company, with two panels of pictorial scenes, published in London by Henry Overton.
This highly decorative map of Africa was made during the height of the activities of the Royal Africa Company (RAA). The map was specifically intended to document the activities of the RAA on the African continent. Founded in 1660 as a private stock company, the RAA was granted a Royal Charter by Charles II, which gave the Company a monopoly on all English (and later British) trade with Africa. Most importantly, this included control of the brutual but lucrative Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
As labelled on the map (and depicted along its borders), the Company built a series of forts along the coast of West Africa. At these forts, company officials gathered captured slaves, before loading them onto boats for the 'Rough Crossing' to America or the West Indies. Additionally, the RAA gained large revenues from valuable tropical woods and dyes, ivory and gold. Indeed, gold from West Africa was used in London to mint "the Guinea", which is named after this region in Africa, and was the most important gold coin in Britain from 1663 to 1814. The RAA retained its monopoly on African trade until 1753, when the market was opened up to a variety of players.
While much of the interior of Africa is conjectural (and embellished with innumerable exotic animals), the coverage of the coasts of West Africa is exceedingly detailed, while the overall outline of the continent is quite modern, largely based on Portuguese sources. The map is framed by a 13 finely-engraved views of RAA forts and scenes of indigeous customs. Side panel vignettes include (1) the Pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt; (2) searching for mummies; (3) executing traitors in Barbary; (4) finding gold at the River Atzine in Negroland; (5) the custom of pouring earth on the new king in Negroland; (6) the manner of informing the subjects of Nether Ethiopia that the King is going to eat or drink (it being death to look upon him at that time); (7) images of Hottentots; (8) The Southwest Prospect of Williams Fort at Whydah; (9) A Prospect from Seat of James Fort at Accra (Ghana); (10) Southwest Prospect of James Island on the River Gambia; (11) Northwest Prospect of Bense Island on the River Sierra Leone; (12) South Prospect of the English Fort at Commenda; (13) Northwest Prospect of Cape Coast Castle. The vignettes towards the bottom of the main map include scenes of a man on horseback hunting a large bird (supposedly an Osterich), and a party of Africans, with one holding an elephant tusk.
The map was produced by Henry Overton (fl. 1707-1750), one of the leading British cartographers of the first half of the 18th-century. The dating of the map corresponds to the reign of Queen Caroline (the dedicatee of the map), George II's queen consort from 1727 until her death in 1737.
The map is of the utmost rarity. The only other known example of this state of the map is in the Stanford University collection, formerly the property of Oscar Norwich. OCLC locates 2 variant examples, one at the John Carter Brown Library (first state, with dedication to Queen Anne) and one at Cambridge University, without the decorative side panels.
The Overton family was a prominent part of the printing, and mapmaking, industry in London in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. John Overton (1639/40-1713) was the son of a tailor who apprenticed to Stationer Thomas Gould. He was made free of the Stationers’ Company in 1663. Two years later, London was struck by the Great Plague of 1665-6. Peter Stent, a leading printseller, succumbed and Overton took over his shop. This burned in the Great Fire of 1666, but Overton had rebuilt by 1669, when he advertised his wares from the White Horse on Snow Hill. Overton specialized in prints, portraits, and especially maps and topographical views.
John was likely married three times and had seven children. His eldest, Thomas, emigrated to America. His second oldest, Henry, was executor of John’s will when the latter died in 1713. Henry (1675/6-1751) acquired his father’s stock in 1707 and ran the shop until his own death in 1751. He published many maps, most focusing on the British Isles. His shop and stock passed to his nephew, another Henry, son of John’s fourth son, James.
Henry the Elder’s brother, Philip (ca. 1681-1745), was also a printer and mapmaker. Philip served as his father’s apprentice and was made free of the Stationers’ in 1702. His father set him up in the trade in 1707 and by 1710 he was working from the sign of the Golden Buck in Fleet Street. Philip specialized in fine arts prints, including Hogarth’s Hudibras set (1726), but he also sold many maps. At his death in 1745 he left his shop to his widow, Mary. She ran the shop and then married James Sayer, whose brother, Robert, became Mary’s assistant. He took over the business in 1748 and became a famous purveyor of maps, charts, and views.
Back at the sign of the White Horse, Henry the Younger continued the family business, expanding their stock to include a large collection of landscape views. He often partnered with Robert Sayer. He continued in business until at least 1764, when he drops out of the historical record.