| Method | Lithograph |
| Artist | Hoffman, George Spencer |
| Published | George Philip & Son, Ltd. Printed in Great Britain by George Philip & Son, Limited, London. [1930] |
| Dimensions | 375 x 480 mm |
| Notes |
Spencer Hoffman's rare map of Canterbury, the third and final 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 streets, churches, public buildings, and other points of interest labelled. A pair of keys to the map feature in the bottom left and right, enclosed in box cartouches, topped with roundels of the Black Prince and Thomas a Beckett. At the top of the map, to either side of the title cartouche, the arms of the City and Diocese of Canterbury are blazoned. In an oval in the bottom right is a small illustration of Geoffrey Chaucer, the first lines of his famous Canterbury Tales forming a decorative textual border at the top and bottom of the map. 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. Small tear to central fold on left margin, not affecting map. |
| Framing | unmounted |
| Price | £575.00 |
| Stock ID | 52820 |