Beschreibung:

ORDNANCE SURVEY, OLD SERIES. [ A collection of 29 sheets of Southern England ]. London: William Mudge, the Drawing Room at the Tower, 1805-17. 2° (650 x 520mm). 29 double-page engraved sheets [old sheet numbers 1,2,4,5,8-12,14-27,29,30,32,33,47,48], all in PROOF OR EARLY STATES WITHOUT FULL BORDERS, 8 annotated in pencil 'not yet published' , many sheets with some major roads coloured in red, sheet numbers amended in manuscript to the order of this volume, adjoining sheet numbers similarly marked, on guards throughout. (Light dampstaining to upper and lower margins and along a few folds, several sheets shaved at head or foot due to hasty cutting, sheet 22 with small clean tear, one half of sheet 30 torn away.) Contemporary half calf, worn, spine lacking, upper cover detached. An important series of proof states of the first edition Ordnance Survey sheets, complete as a series up to 1817 (sheets 3,6,7,13,28 etc being issued after 1817) with the exception of sheet 31 (previously removed from this volume). Proofs for individual or groups of sheets were often circulated to local topographers in the counties for name checking before being finally issued, but this large and complete series of the sheets was probably issued to a more prominent member of the Board of Ordnance to keep them up to date with the survey's progress. Mudge himself, who was continually out in the field, had proofs sent to him to check up on the engravers work. cf. Seymour A History of the Ordnance Survey , 1980, pp.61 and 70.