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| Keywords: 1765 Benjamin Donn Wall Map of Devonshire and Exeter, England - Geographicus - Devon-donn-1765.jpg LargeImage This is a very rare and highly important 1765 wall map of Devonshire by Benjamin Donn Drawn in twelve panels this map covers the entirety of Devonshire or Devon from the English Channel to Barnstaple Bideford Bay and from Cornwall to Somerset at a scale of 1 inch to 1 mile Donn also incorporates large insets of Exeter showing the college Plymouth Plymouth Dock Stoke Town and the Isle of Lundy An elaborate decorative title cartouche with various allegorical elements appears in the lower left quadrant In 1759 the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts Manufacturers and Commerce since 1847 known as the Royal Society for the Arts following the suggestion of the Cornish antiquarian William Borlase offered a £100 award for a large scale one inch to the mile map of any English county Benjamin Donn the first to step up to the Borlase ™s challenge began work on his map of Devon in 1760 Five years later Donn ™s extraordinary project reached completion The Society was awed by the magnitude and detail of Donn ™s accurate actual survey and promptly awarded him the £100 Though the actual work of completing the survey and print the map cost Donn by his own estimation nearly £2000 the prestige of issuing the first large scale British county map earned him both robust subsequent sales and the admiration of his peers Donn ™s vast map of Devon and Exeter offers a wealth of detail and stands up to extensive study As the first significant large scale British county map this remarkable chart introduces a number of cartographic conventions that would become standardized in subsequent county and regional maps These include Donn ™s techniques for rendering turnpike roads versus fenced roads versus open roads as well as his innovative iconography relating the identification of farms cottages churches villages and estates In addition to the inclusion of typical cartographic features it also includes such oddities as country inns pleasure houses lime kilns the birthplace of Sr Walter Raleigh potato markets ancient roman ruins druidic ruins subterranean passages mileage elevation and some 656 gentleman ™s seats This map was drawn and surveyed by Benjamin Donn and printed by Thomas Jeffreys in twelve separate but joinable panels Donn dedicated his map to John Baring of Mount-Radford and Matthew Lee of Ebford local notables who may have helped Donn finance his survey work This is a highly decorative and unusual example of this particular map Most examples of this map appear bound in book format with large centerfolds and outline or no color This unusual example must have been prepared at a special request and is the only full original color example we have seen It is recorded that Donn charged 2 extra shillings for binding and 5 extra for coloring and an additional unknown premium for exceptionally fine full coloring Further this example has clearly never been bound or folded and each panel is neatly backed with linen It is our belief that this is special order variant of the first edition and as such is a unique find Presents dramatically spaced in a single large frame or in a sequence of narrowly set individual frames 1765 dated Size in 76 73 object history credit line accession number Devon-donn-1765 Geographicus-source PD-Art-100 Image extracted File Plan of the City and Suburbs of Exeter 1765 jpg File Plan of the Town and Citadel of Plymouth Benjamin Donn 1765 jpg File Plan of Stoke Town and Plymouth Dock - Benjamin Donn 1765 jpg 1765 maps Benjamin Donn Old county maps of Devon | ||||
