Sayer, Robert, and John Bennet
The American Military Pocket Atlas
£5,796
Auction: 05 February 2025 from 10:00 GMT
Description
being an Approved Collection of Correct Maps, both General and Particular, of the British Colonies; especially those which now are, or probably may be the Theatre of War: taken principally from the Actual Surveys and Judicious Observations of Engineers De Brahm and Romans; Cook, Jackson, and Collet; Maj. Holland, and other Officers, employed in His Majesty's Fleets and Armies. London: printed for R. Sayer and J. Bennet, 1776. 8vo, contemporary marbled boards, marbled calf spine, [3] vi-viii [2] pp., 6 engraved folding maps hand-coloured in outline, maps 3-5 with decorative title-cartouches, titles comprising:
1. North America, as Divided amongst the European Bowers (31.5 x 46.5cm);
2. A Compleat Map of the West Indies, containing the Coasts of Florida, Louisiana, New Spain, and Terra Firma: with all the Islands (32 x 45.5cm);
3. A General Map of the Northern British Colonies in America, which comprehends the Province of Quebec, the Government of Newfoundland, Nova-Scotia, New-England and New-York (50.5 x 67.5cm);
4. A General Map of the Middle British Colonies, in America, containing Virginia, Maryland, the Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. With the addition of New York, and of the Greatest Part of New England, as also of the Bordering Parts of the Province of Quebec (48.5 x 66.5cm; inset of upper Canada);
5. A General Map of the Southern British Colonies in America, comprehending North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, with the Neighbouring Indian Countries (52 x 65.5cm; inset plans of Charleston and St Augustine);
6. A Survey of Lake Champlain, including Lake George, Crown Point at St John (66.5 x 48.5cm).
Faint offsetting, discreet old paper reinforcement along folds on versos, small circular stain to map 4.
[Gephart, Revolutionary America I 886]
Footnote
Published at the commencement of the American War of Independence and nicknamed the ‘Holster atlas', the American Military Pocket Atlas was intended to meet the demand for ‘such maps as an officer may take with him into the field’, and was ‘calculated in its bulk and price to suit the pockets of officers of all ranks’, according to the publishers' advertisement to the front of the volume. The partnership of mapmakers Robert Sayer and John Bennett was dissolved shortly after the end of the war, with Bennett having lost his sanity and been committed to the asylum of Dr Thomas Munro in Clapton for nine months in 1783.