| Method | Offset lithograph |
| Artist | Hoffman, George Spencer |
| Published | George Philip & Son, Ltd. Printed in Great Britain by George Philip & Son, Limited, London. [1929] |
| Dimensions | 380 x 488 mm |
| Notes |
A deluxe colour printed example of Spencer Hoffman's rare map of Cambridge city centre, the first in an intended series of 'Wayabout' pictorial maps he produced between 1928 and 1930, this example printed by George Philip & Son, Ltd for the London Geographical Institute. The map shows the city from a bird's-eye perspective, with colleges, public buildings, streets, and other points of interest labelled. Three keys to the map feature along the bottom, enclosed in box cartouches. Colleges, including some of the newer foundations such as Girton, Newnham, and Selwyn, are labelled numerically, University and Town buildings alphanumerically, and Churches with roman numerals. At the top of the map, to either side of the title cartouche, the arms of the University and City are enclosed in laurel wreaths. Hoffman was Cambridge educated, so it is appropriate that the map of his alma mater should be the first in his series of maps. George Spencer Hoffman (1875-1950) was a British architect and artist, known principally for his series of bird's-eye 'Wayabout' maps of British cities. George Philip (1800–1882) was a cartographer and map publisher. Son of a staunchly Calvinist family, he became in 1819 assistant to the Liverpool bookseller, William Grapel and in 1834 started his own business in Liverpool producing maps and educational books. The business expanded rapidly. He used cartographers (such as John Bartholomew the elder, August Petermann, and William Hughes) to produce maps on copper plates. Philip then had these printed and hand-coloured by his women tinters. By the time he produced his county maps of 1862 he was using machine coloured maps produced on power-driven lithographic presses. He had one son, also George (1823–1902), who was admitted to the business in 1848 (and was the cause of the name change to George Philip & Son Ltd). The company continued to operate successfully until 1987 when it was sold to Reed International. Here it continued to trade as George Philip Ltd. In 1998, following a management buy-out of the Illustrated books division, Philip's became part of the Octopus Publishing Group. Hachette Livre acquired the group in 2001. Condition: Excellent clean impression. Vertical and horizontal folds, as issued. Tipped to original card binding along edge of bottom left segment of map. |
| Framing | unmounted |
| Price | £600.00 |
| Stock ID | 52819 |