* POPPLE, Henry (d.1743). A Map of the British Empire in America with the French and Spanish settlements adjacent thereto. London: William Henry Toms, 1733 [but c.1735].
Folio (528 x 358 mm). Double-page key map by Toms (sheet 527 x 512mm), 20 engraved sheets (15 double-page and 5 single-page), and letterpress contents leaf, all mounted on guards. (Key map laid down and shaved slightly along lower margin, sheet 1 with slight marginal wormtrack on upper margin, sheet 17 with 1 1/2-in. closed marginal tear repaired with tissue, some very minor spotting and pale offsetting, minor occasional soiling.) Contemporary half calf, marbled boards (spine perished, upper cover detached, lower cover nearly detached, corners worn, hinges reinforced with cloth tape).
A FINE COPY OF THE FIRST LARGE-SCALE PRINTED MAP OF COLONIAL NORTH AMERICA, THE FIRST PRINTED MAP TO SHOW THE THIRTEEN COLONIES AND A MONUMENT OF NORTH AMERICAN CARTOGRAPHY
Babinski's state 5 or 6: with no imprint on title sheet 17, imprint on sheet 20 reading "London Engrav'd by Willm. Henry Toms 1733" (without R. W. Seale's name), sheet 1 with the engraved numeral "1" in the upper left corner just outside neatlines and with engraved sheet number added to upper right corners of each sheet. The key map is present in the Babinski's 4th state [c.1740], with the addition of a dotted line from Vera Crux to Havana among the ships in the Gulf of Mexico with text along the line. This copy also contains the first state of the letterpress Contents leaf entitled "The Contents of each Sheet of the Twenty Plates of Mr. Popple's Map of America," with incorrect enumeration of sheet 13 as XII (Babinski State 1). See Babinski, Henry Popple's 1733 Map; Lowery 337 (key map) & 338; Sabin 64140; Howes P-481; McCorkle, America Emergent 21; Schwartz & Ehrenberg, p. 151.
Estimate $30,000-40,000
Provenance: Early Ms plate numbers in upper right corners on versos of double sheets, rectos of single sheets (mostly cropped or trimmed).