Flintshire by John Speed

Date: 1662 Uncommon Roger Rea edition

Copper engraving,  original hand colouring. Uncommon Roger Rea edition.  Overall size : 56.6cms.x 43.7cms. Decorative cartouche containing county name. Plans of Flint and Saint Asaph  Scale of distance Illustration of St. Winifreds Well.  Blank back. These can indicate that they were never bound in atlases but the handwritten , ‘Flintshire’ on the verso belies this.  These blank backed Speeds are sometimes preferred as there is no show through from the text at the back.    Bottom margin extended with old paper ; tape remnants top right and left corner tips ; ‘Flintshire’ written in old copper plate writing in brown ink on right side verso ; left margin has some repaired edge tears and few nicks to the right margin edge, one crack just enters the yellow decorative border and one pinhole at Trethyn only visible when held up to the light else good condition

The map bears the imprint of Roger Rea the Elder and Younger. The Reas had purchased the rights to Speed's work from William Garrett in 1659, who had previously purchased them from the widow of William Humble in the same year. Skelton suggests that the father and son intended a new edition of the atlas for the Restoration of 1660. However, the atlas would appear not to have been published until 1662.  A large quantity of the maps were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 so the Rea maps are uncommon and prized

Until his late thirties, John Speed was a tailor by trade but his passion for history and map-making led him to gain a patron in Sir Fulke Greville, the poet and statesman, who found him a post in the customs and helped subsidize his map-making, giving him “full liberty to express the inclination of my mind”. He became acquainted with the publisher William Camden, whose descriptive text was used by Speed for most of the maps in his atlas “The Theatre of Empire of Great Britain” published most probably in 1612 although it bears the date 1611 on the main title page. The maps were engraved in Amsterdam by Jodocus Hondius, one of the foremost engravers of his time. Speed’s maps are unique historical documents of their time and the town plans featured on the maps are in many cases the first information we have of their early appearance. Their artistry has guaranteed the collectability of these maps in the centuries that have followed.