Jefferys, Thomas | The rare first edition of the West India Atlas, 1775

Jefferys, Thomas

The West-India Atlas; or, a Compendious Description of the West-Indies: Illustrated with forty correct charts and maps, taken from actual surveys. Together with an historical account of the several countries and islands which compose that part of the World. London: printed for Robert Sayer and John Bennett, 1775

Folio (546 x 394 mm). Double-page engraved additional title-page, 39 engraved maps and charts by Jefferys and others (36 double-page, 2 with hand-coloring), 2 engraved headpieces (one mounted) and 1 engraved tailpiece in text. Bound to style in 18th-century calf and marble paper boards.

The rare first edition of Jeffrey’s West-India Atlas.

The maps and charts are divided into three sections: the first group of six charts are designed to give information to a navigator wishing to sail from England to the West Indies. It starts with a map of the English Channel, then a general Atlantic chart, followed by more detailed charts of the Azores, the Canaries, the Cape Verde Islands and Bermuda. The second section is made up of an index map of the 'West Indies,' followed by 16 detailed charts that could be joined to form a single, incredibly large chart showing the coast of continental America and the various islands of the Caribbean. The third section contains 16 maps, either of individual islands or groups of islands. Five of the charts feature what is now the mainland United States, mostly showing Florida and Louisiana.

In the 1750s, Thomas Jefferys, one of the leading English cartographers of the 18th century, published a series of maps of the Americas that are among the most significant produced during the period. As Geographer to the Prince of Wales and, after 1761, Geographer to the King, Jefferys had access to the best surveys conducted in America, and many of his maps held the status of "official work." After Jefferys died in 1771, leaving this atlas unfinished, Robert Sayer and John Bennett acquired his copperplates and other materials. They closely followed Jefferys’ plans for the work, adding a few details from various sources to ensure that the information was up to date, and published the present atlas in 1775. It was evidently a commercial success — Sayer and Bennet published five subsequent editions before 1794, when they expanded it to 61 plates.

In addition to the maps, the letterpress text is also of interest: there is a dedication to Sir William Young “late Captain-General and governor in Chief of ... Dominica,” followed by an introduction which gives the details of the genesis of the atlas as well as notes on the sources of the individual maps. This is followed by a longer text on the West Indies, the Islands and the industries that they support, including an early polemic against the slave trade.

REFERENCES

D. Gestetner "Thomas Jefferys': West-India Atlas, 1775" in MapForum, issue 7 (2005), pp.40-48 & issue 8 (2005), pp.30-35; OCLC lists only one copy at Yale; Phillips 2699