Beschreibung:

A Plan of the City and Environs of Philadelphia.
London: William Faden 12 March 1777. Double-page engraved map (635 x 470 mm). Table of distances below the title. Nicely framed. Condition : expert restoration along the fold. earliest obtainable edition of scull and heap’s famous map of philadelphia. In 1752, Scull and Heap published their famous map of Philadelphia, surmounted by a large view of the Philadelphia statehouse. Published in Philadelphia by William Bradford and David Hall that map is extraordinarily rare. Its progenitors, however, are numerous, beginning almost immediately with versions issued in the London Magazine and other periodicals and reawakening at the outset of the American Revolution. The first to issue a version in comparable size and detail of the original was William Faden in 1777. “Faden was careful to give credit on his plate to the pioneer American mapmakers. Instead of placing the elevation of the Statehouse across the top, as Scull and Heap had done, Faden inserted it at the bottom without setting it off by bounding lines. Nor was he slavish in copying the country homes; rather, he made an effort at updating the Philadelphia environs” (Snyder). This is the second state of Faden’s map, with soundings in the Delaware and Port Island named; a notable addition no doubt copied from Joshua Fisher’s chart. Nebenzahl, Atlas of the American Revolution 26; Snyder, COI 47a; Wainwright, “Scull and Heap’s Map of Philadelphia” in PMHB, vol. 81, no. 1.