7. The Maps and Mapmakers

Both publications promised to provide maps. Moore’s Address to the public is interesting here as it promised: Two impressions of a map of the County will be given in the course of the Work; one of them, to accompany Mr Brayley’s Outlines, will be coloured geologically; ground plans of the City of Exeter and the Cathedral will also be given.

When published in bound format, Volume I of Moore had a map of THE CITY OF EXETER clearly dated 1835 and engraved by W Schmollinger with a Paternoster Row address and published by R Colliver, Exeter; Volume II had a detailed county map of very high quality, also engraved by W Schmollinger, and published by R Colliver, Holloway Street, Exeter but dated 1836. The map of Exeter was Drawn by R Brown. It would appear that Moore and Brown had some sort of contact, possibly only postal, as Moore refers to him when writing about the Rev. Bidlake who resided in Tamerton. “I am indebted for the materials of this article chiefly to Mr R Brown, architect, who ... is a native of Tamerton”[1]. However, the footnote on page 766, at the end of a long biography of Joshua Reynolds, refers to Brown as a resident of Topsham. In all likelihood he was actually living in Exeter: in Pigot & Co.´s Royal National and Commercial Directory (1844) Richard Brown is registered as a resident of Exeter. Listed under Architects, he is further noted as being Professor of Architecture living at 5 Upper Eaton Place, Heavitree Road, Exeter.

Mr W Bennett was distributing the parts issue from his premises in Russell Street Plymouth from at least 1831. William Bennett was a bookseller, publisher, stationer and bookbinder first at 13, Russell Street, Plymouth (1830) and later at 22, Russell Street (1840-1844). He was also registered at 53, Paternoster Row, London in 1844.[2] However, the publisher of the map was Richard Colliver (fl. 1828-1848). His name appears very early in the Parts publication (from Part 4). He carried on a number of retail activities, working as both a Bookseller and tea dealer in the period 1828-1835.[3] For Colliver to engage a London engraver (Schmollinger) to execute two such fine maps is commendable. In addition, it was Colliver whose name appears on the later multi-parts issues 8, 9 and X (each consisting of four monthly Parts) which are extant.

 

 

Fig. 22. Schmollinger’s map of Devonshire for Moore with vignettes.

(Courtesy of antique-maps-online.co.uk).

 

The 1836 map of Devon by Schmollinger (Fig. 22) is of a similar style to those found in Moule’s English Counties. The frame, typical of Moule’s maps (although not Devon) has columns right and left with two different and very ornate stonework patterns between and has been bound into editions of The History of Devonshire. The county map is unusual in having vignette views of Tavistock Abbey and County Sessions House, neither of which appear on any other maps of Devon. The former view looks a little bit out of place, almost as if a Reference to Hundreds might have been moved to create space for it.

Usually, Schmollinger´s Exeter map (Fig. 23) is found folded (sometimes twice) to fit the octavo edition of the book, and nearly always only appears in the complete edition (of two or three volumes) containing 908 pages in Volume II. The recently found set of Parts which runs to 50 issues has a crisp, unfolded hand-coloured copy of the map and this was stitched in (badly) by the same binder who gathered Parts 49 and 50 together.

William Schmollinger seems to have been a specialist map engraver as well as publisher and flourished between 1830 and 1837. Plans of Pompeii for Sir William Gell are known but his main mapping work seems to have been contributing to Thomas Moule’s English Counties[4], being responsible for 25 different map plates (but John Crane Dower engraved Devon and Cornwall). He also produced at least two maps of London in the early 1830s. Worms and Baynton-Williams[5] believe him to be William Francis Schmollinger, born c.1811. He married Sophia McMurdo in London in 1836. He had premises at 27 Goswell Terrace, Goswell Road about the time he engraved these maps, and later in Aldine Chambers, Paternoster Row. He may well have been the son of the Joseph Schmollinger and Mary Drew who married at St Leonard Shoreditch in 1799[6].

 

 

Fig. 23. Schmollinger’s map of Exeter for Moore drawn by R Brown.

 

 

The artist for Schmollinger´s map, R Brown, crops up in connection with two further Devon map projects. Henry Besley’s Route Book of Devon was a huge success as one of the first Devon guides produced in the county and ran to several reprints. In the early guides (1845 to 1851), Besley introduced a map of Plymouth and it is signed in the title panel “R. Brown, Architect, Delin.” However, the Plan of Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport had already appeared in 1841 in William Wood’s The Stranger’s Handbook to the Western Metropolis.

This was not, however, R Brown’s first cartographic venture. When Octavian Blewitt updated The Panorama of Torquay in 1832 for E Cockrem in Torquay there was a map of that town[1] “Drawn by R. Brown, archt.” Moore’s map of Exeter was similarly drawn by Brown. It is worth noting that Brown was also the engraver of ten of the views in the History. His first view was one of Exeter Cathedral as early as March 1830. A second church view, Ottery St. Mary, appeared in 1832, probably in the March issue. He then went on to produce 8 more views published between March and July 1833, i.e. in 5 of the final 8 Parts.

It is interesting that James Bingley is listed as contributing work to Moore’s History. He, too, contributed maps to Moule’s English Counties (18) and for a while Schmollinger and he, together with Francis Roxburgh, seem to have been in partnership circa 1833. Bingley was imprisoned for debt and there was a court case between Schmollinger and Roxburgh. Schmollinger was himself declared bankrupt in May 1856 and died in Camberwell aged 58 (1869).[7] He would have been working for both Moule and Moore at about the same time.

The puzzling aspect remains that in the Address it would appear that 4 maps and plans were offered but only two were forthcoming. The county map “coloured geologically” and the plan of the Cathedral never emerged. The two maps included could have been from another source and tipped in later when the book sections were sent to the binder but they have not been seen in any other work.

 

Henry Fisher

 

Two specially commissioned maps were included in Devon & Cornwall Illustrated: the county map of Devon has an attractive vignette view of Babicombe Bay signed by Allom and Floyd and is dated 1831 (Fig. 24); and Cornwall, with an inset of the famous Cheese Wring and signed by B R Davies, is dated 1832 (Fig. 25). The map of Devon appeared in Part No. 29 and the companion map of Cornwall - measured 185 x 235 mm (l x h) at the same scale of English Miles (20 = 46 mm) – in Part No. 33. The maps were to be bound as frontispieces to face the respective title page in the bound version.

 

Fig. 24. Map of Devonshire for Fisher with vignette by Allom and Floyd.

 

Usually, the two counties are found bound together but each has its separate title page still dated 1829 for Devon and 1832 for Cornwall but a new joint title page was issued for insertion in 1832. The publishers commissioned the maps from the company of J & C Walker who produced a number of maps of the two counties for various works.[8]

John and Charles Walker were among the leading publishing companies for cartographical works at this time. The map of Devon they produced for this work measures 185 x 235 mm (l x h) with a scale of English Miles (20 = 46 mm) or approximately 1M = 2.3 mm. The title DEVONSHIRE is above the top border centrally. The map includes a vignette view of BABICOMBE BAY. The publisher’s imprint of FISHER, SON & Co. LONDON, 1831. is centrally below the lower border and the engraver’s signature, Drawn & Engraved by J & C. Walker. is below the bottom border to the right.

The vignette is signed Allom (left) and Floyd (right) below the Babicombe view. William Floyd (fl.1832-1859)[9] is believed to be Robert Brandard´s brother-in-law and this Babicombe Bay view his first known work. He also engraved four plates for Moore. He did further work for Fisher, Son & Co., producing engravings of the Rhine scenery for their part work The Rhine, Italy and Greece (c.1841-42). Many of his engravings were in cooperation with Thomas Allom including a set of nine prints for G N Wright´s China of 1843.[10]

 

 

Fig. 25. Map of Cornwall for Fisher signed by B R Davies.

 

Benjamin Rees Davies (c.1799-1872), the artist and engraver of the map of Cornwall, was a map and writing engraver, cartographer, publisher and printer.[11] His first cartographic work is recorded as early as 1811 and in 1832 he collaborated with J Britton on a map of Tunbridge Wells. He engraved a large number of the maps found in Frederic Kelly´s The Post Office Directory series in cooperation with Francis Paul Becker. Many of the maps found in the Weekly Despatch series, later becoming the Dispatch Atlas and finally acquired by George Washington Bacon were by Davies.

The title CORNWALL is above the top border centrally. The map included a vignette view of THE CHEESE WRING. The publisher’s imprint of FISHER, SON & Co. LONDON, 1831. is centrally below the lower border and the engraver’s signature, Drawn & Engraved B R Davies. is below the bottom border to the right. Although this map is not signed by J & C Walker, the border is identical to that found on the map of Devon.

Both maps make use of unusual vignette scenes. It had been comparatively unusual to include scenes in county maps outside of the title cartouche and only a small number of the 120 map engravers of a Devon County map published before the reign of Queen Victoria had found space for a view. Setting aside those who included coats of arms (and Drayton’s fairy-like creatures), only a handful of county map makers had included an extra view; Read (1743) had included two versions of Edystone Lighthouse (copied by Simpson-Walker 1744), Bowen (1763), Langley-Belch (1817), C & J Greenwood (in 1827 and 1829), Pigot (1829) and Scott-Fullarton (1833) had all included Exeter Cathedral. Dix and Darton portrayed Dartmouth Castle (1816) and Thomas Moule presented Exeter Guildhall in his map by John Dower (1834) (Fig. 26.). The scenes in Jennings and Fisher are unique to their maps.

 

 

Fig. 26. Devonshire by John Dower for Moule with view of Exeter Guildhall.

 Use the links here to go directly to desired pages:

1. Introduction.

2. Steel Engraving.

3. Subscribers and Funding.

4. The Authors.

5. The Printers and Publishers.

6. The Artists and Engravers.

7. The Maps and Mapmakers.

8. Publication History.

9. Collaboration or Coincidence.

Use following links to go directly to Tables and to Views.
Appendix I. Plates in History of Devonshire (Jennings) - Somers Cocks S.103.
Appendix II. Plates in Devonshire & Cornwall Illustrated (Fisher) - Somers Cocks S.107.
Appendix III. Publication History of the octavo Parts issues of History of Devonshire.
Appendix IV. Publication History of the quarto Parts issues of History of Devonshire.
Appendix V. Publication History of of the quarto Parts issues of Devonshire and Cornwall Illustrated.
Appendix VI. Letter from Rev Moore to Rev Oliver.
Appendix VII. Dedications.
  a. Plates in History of Devonshire with dedication.
  b. Plates in Devonshire & Cornwall Illustrated with dedication.
  c. Plates in both History of Devonshire  and Devonshire & Cornwall Illustrated with           dedication.
Appendix VIII. Cornwall plates in Devonshire & Cornwall Illustrated (Fisher). 
Appendix IX. Archives with copies of History of Devonshire  and Devonshire & Cornwall Illustrated.  

List of Illustrations, with Select Bibliography and Disclaimer. 

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[1] See footnote Vol. II p. 746.
[2] Ibid.
[3] See bookhistory.blogspot.com/2014/07/devon-book-trades-exeter-c. This is one of the Exeter Working Papers in Book History compiled by Ian Maxted as An anti-book trade index . A chronological listing of attacks on the written word. An excellent series on all fronts.
[4] Batten & Bennett (1996/2008) entry 111.
[5] Laurence Worms and Ashley Baynton-Williams (2011).
[6] Laurence Worms; Some British Mapmakers; Ash Rare Books Catalogue and Price List; 1992.
[7] Worms and Baynton-Williams (2011).
[8] See Batten & Bennett (1996/2008) entries 103, 113 and 116.
[9] Ash Rare Books gallery has his dates as (1802-1887).
[10] Basil Hunnisett; An Illustrated Dictionary of British Steel Engravers; 1989; Routledge.
[11] Worms and Baynton-Williams (2011).