Catalog Archive
Auction 204, Lot 341

NO RESERVE

"Worcestershire", Moule, Thomas

Subject: Central England

Period: 1850 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Hand Color

Size:
8 x 10.4 inches
20.3 x 26.4 cm
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Thomas Moule (1784 – 1851) was a writer, bookseller, publisher, topographer and a scholar in heraldry. His varied career led him in 1830 to produce a series of English county map based on his own travel. He wrote that he has “with expensive diligence personally visited every county in England, excepting only Devonshire and Cornwall.” His maps were delicately engraved on steel in a highly decorative style, featured such embellishments as armorial bearings, figures, fancy borders and vignettes of local interest. This amount of ornamentation in mapmaking was unusual for the period as most mapmaker’s were instead creating scientifically accurate, austere works. His series of county maps were originally published in separate sections for each county (1830-32), then subsequently published in a two-volume work: The English Counties Delineated…, (1836). Beginning in 1841, the maps appeared in Barclays Complete and Universal English Dictionary.

This attractive steel-engraved map provides detailed information of the cities, towns, roads, railroads, canals and parks in Worcestershire. At top and bottom are vignettes of Great Malvern, Croom Court, and a view of the city Worcester. The map is further decorated by local coats or arms and an elegant floral border.

References:

Condition: B+

A colorful example with a faint dampstain at right.

Estimate: $40 - $50

Sold for: $21

Closed on 6/18/2025

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