A New General Atlas, comprising a Complete Set of Maps, representing the Grand Divisions of the Globe, together with the several Empires, Kingdoms and States in the World.

Folio (16 x 12 6/8 inches). Letterpress "Advertisement' leaf. Engraved title-page. Engraved frontispiece showing a comparison of mountains and rivers and 61 full-page maps all with original hand-colour (map of Africa torn crossing the image, some light mostly marginal soiling). Half brown morocco, tan cloth, gilt (extremities scuffed, lightly soiled). First edition, and EXCEPTIONALLY RARE, we can only find one other copy of this edition - at the Newberry Library. With 35 maps showing the Americas. Nearly all the maps are derived from copperplates used in Anthony Finley's "A New General Atlas" which he published between 1824 and 1834. Many of the plates have been updated, and/or have additional features. The "Advertisement" states that in addition to being the cheapest atlas ever published it is also complete and comprehensive, containing "in addition to the general maps, a map of every empire., besides one of each of the United States, all compiled and revised from the most recent and authentic materials, under the immediate inspection of Mr. H.S. Tanner". Presumably published to compete with and replace the "A New Universal Atlas" which Tanner had first published in 1836, but had sold the rights to in the early 1840s when Carey & Hart published editions in 1843 and 1844. Tanner's "A New General Atlas" has fewer maps than the "A New Universal Atlas". "Tanner was a leading figure in establishing commercial map publishing in America and brought the atlas as a cartographic form to early maturity during the "golden age" of American copperplate printing. He combined the skills of a geographer with those of an editor and engraver to create authoritative maps during a period of unprecedented growth in topographical knowledge of North America. He represented the emergence in the world of American publishers of specialized maps, and he placed map compilation and atlas design on a newly scientific basis, introducing uniform map scales for maps in atlases and documentation of sources employed. He crucially reinforced the brief impetus Melish had given to the rise of homegrown American map publishing and set standards that later publishers took for granted" (Michael P. Conzen for ADNB). Catalogued by Kate Hunter.…