RENNELL, JAMES
A BENGAL ATLAS: CONTAINING MAPS OF THE THEATER OF WAR AND COMMERCE ON THAT SIDE OF HINDOOSTAN
Year: 1781Size: 49.5 x 35.5 cm (19.4 x 13.9 inches)
No. of Illustrations: 21 Engraved Maps on 18 Sheets. (10 Double Page, 7 Folded Page, 1 Signal Page, 1 Title Page and 2 Engravings)
Compiled from the original surveys; and published by order of the Honorable the Court of Directors for the Affairs of the East India-Company. By James Rennell, Late Major Of Engineers, and Surveyor General In Bengal
Second edition, Folio size
Title and 27pp. of text, 21 engraved maps, (of 21 with Index map and map of inland navigation, no. 22 called for but never issued) on 18 sheets, mostly folding or double-page, some hand-coloured in outline
Later full Green leather, gilt decoration on boards, red leather title labels in gilt on Front cover and spine.
SECOND BUT ENLARGE EDITION OF RENNELL’S CELEBRATEDBENGAL ATLAS OF JAMES RENNELL (1742 - 1830). Following a career in the army of the East India Company (during which he distinguished himself in Clive’s campaigns), Rennell was appointed surveyor-general of Bengal in 1764. In this capacity he supervised much of the early mapping of eastern India, A manuscript atlas of the results was sent to England in 1774, which culminated in the publication of his Bengal Atlas. Ill health led to Rennell taking up residence in England in 1778 when ‘he proposed a new set of maps of Bengal to replace the inadequate small-scale maps published by the East India Company from his earlier surveys’, and, with the guarantee of a bulk order from the company, had plates engraved. A Bengal Atlas was first published in 1780 but the first 1780 edition is extremely rare “because the bulk consignment sent by ship from London to India in July 1780 for the use of company officials”, was captured en-route at sea by French and Spanish ships and Rennell had to produce a new enlarged Atlas, with river maps and tables of distances in 1781. (See Shirley British Library T.RENN 1c.) ‘A Bengal Atlas remained the standard administrative map of Bengal of almost fifty years...’ DNB.
EXTREMELY RARE
Provenance : Collection of a Gentleman
Very Good Condition
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