George Bickham

George Bickham Mapmaker was born in 1684, he flourished at Covent Garden, London, as an author and engraver from c.1700-1758.

Bickham's most interesting work is his strange set of bird's-eye view maps of counties, possibly first published in 1743. It certainly appeared in 1754, and in 1796 it was re-issued in a slightly altered form.

Each county is seen from a hill with classical ruins, so that we see the county through the foreground of decaying pillars and broken archways. A few place names are shown upon each map. They are attractive, small folio in size, all upright, and quite unlike anything else. Rare.

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