An Hibernian Atlas; or general description of the Kingdom of Ireland: Divided into Provinces; with its sub-divisions of Counties, Baronies, &c. Shewing their Boundaries, Extent, Soil, Produce, Contents, Measure, Members of Parliament, and Number of Inhabitants; also the Cities, Boroughs, Villages, Mountains, Bogs, Lakes, Rivers and natural curiosities Together with the Great and Bye Post Roads. The whole taken from actual Surveys and Observations, By Bernard Scale, Land Surveyor. and beautifully engraved on 78 Copper Plates, by Mess.rs Ellis and Palmer
London: Robert Sayer and John Bennet [sic], 1776. First edition.
Quarto (9 5/16” x 7 3/16”, 237mm x 183mm): with 79 engraved plates: 5 preliminary leaves (blank, printer’s mark, title, blank, dedication, blank, preface, blank, index, blank) and 74 leaves (blank, text, map, blank for each of 37 maps), the 37 maps hand-colored.
Bound in later (post-1901) quarter green morocco over marbled boards by Sangorski & Sutcliffe (stamp-signed at the verso of the front free end-paper). On the spine, five raised bands. Author and title gilt to the second panel, imprint gilt to the tail.
Sunned at the spine. Rubbed at the edges. Light tanning and the odd spot of foxing, with some offsetting at the maps. Oxidization of the pigment verso. Ink ownership stamp of “J. Fairclough, 5, North Wall.” to the recto of the first printed leaf (printer’s mark verso).
Bernard Scalé (descended of Huguenot stock; 1738–1826) is known essentially only as the author of the present work — which ran to four editions, as late as 1824 — and of a series of engravings of Parliament House (Dublin) in 1767. The preface boasts that the present work is the first atlas of Ireland: “no Man has ever exhibited an actual Survey of this Ancient and of late cultivated fertile Kingdom; but when it is considered how few there are capable of the Important Undertaking, the Wonder ceases..”
The whole of the work, including the text, is engraved — an achievement of London engravers — and each map bears the 1 February 1776 imprint of Sayer & Bennett. The color, which has the tell-tale oxidation of copper in green pigments that signals great age, is particularly rich in this example. John Fairclough of 5 North Wall in Dublin is noted as a member of the renowned Portmarnock Golf Club in Dublin in the 1909 “Who’s Who in Golf” and directory of golf clubs and members.
Item #JLR0754
Price: $8,500