John Cary - Thomas Doidge 

The company of Thomas Doidge was listed in a trade directory of 1879 as proprietors of a photographic studio, fancy goods dealers, booksellers, binders, stationers, &c at Union Street, Plymouth. One or two photographs survive and one has an advert on the reverse announcing that oil or watercolour copis of the portrait can be had at life size.[1]  

                                                       

 Little of Doidge’s output is held at the major libraries  One map of Devon is known by Doidge and Co. Apart from this map, the BL only has a copy of A Ramble around Mount Edgcumbe written by W H K Wright published by the company. 

Doidge's Western Counties Annual ‑ A miscellany of useful, instructive, entertaining local and general information ‑ was issued annually from c. 1877 at which time they were operating from premises at 169‑170 Union St. This was produced in two editions with a special printing for the Army and Navy edition which included county historical information in the calendar section. The annuals were packed with stories and contained an almanack for each month. Doidge advertised himself as Great Book and Stationery Mart and also as a Discount Bookseller. In 1892 Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. became the London agents. Photos were added in 1893 and by 1894 Doidge was claiming sales of 15000 copies. The printers at the end of the century were the Plymouth printers of Hoyten and Cole. A map was included with the annual in 1899 ‑ Midland Railway Map of Great Britain.   

An illustration of the Doidge premises was used in an advertisement in 1891 and it is a very impressive establishment. At this time they were offering the largest stock of books in the west. They also offered a large scale map of Plymouth and District with 2 mile circles and this is almost certainly the map described below. It was not cheap: folded to fit the pocket and mounted on linen it cost half a crown.      

                                   

Advert for Doidge´s Toy Warehouse placed in Eyre´s Picturesque Devon and Cornwall 1891. Illustration courtesy of the Bodleian Library, Oxford.  

Cary Improved Map 5 (Doidge) 

Size: 598 x 742 mm.      Scale (10 = 128 mm). 

DOIDGE'S NEW LARGE SCALE CYCLING AND TOURING ROAD MAP OF PLYMOUTH AND DISTRICT. Imprint: DOIDGE & Co. 169 & 170 UNION STREET, PLYMOUTH (BeOS). There is an inset map: KEY MAP TO THE ROADS OF THE SOUTH OF ENGLAND. The map is provided with circles radiating out from the centre of Plymouth (see also Swiss, but not identical). Note (CeOS) reads: The Circles Denote Two Mile Distances. The map shows the area from St Austell to Teignmouth and north as far as Stratton and Bradford by Black Torrington. Railways are shown to Holsworthy, opened in 1879, but not the line to Kingsbridge which opened in 1893 nor the extension to Bude (1898 but planned earlier). 

1. 1890            Doidge's New Large Scale Cycling and Touring Road Map of Plymouth and District. Plymouth. Doidge & Co. (1890).    Tooley DE27 BL[2], E. 

 

For Cary´s county maps refer to The Printed Maps of Devon entries 51, 54, 55, 69, 71, 73 and 92. Click reference number to open directly.

For Cary´s New Map of England and Wales so-called "square atlas" - click here.

For Cary´s Improved Map of England and Wales as issued by Cary and others - click here.

For the section of Improved Map of England and Wales as issued by John Heydon - click here.

For the section of Improved Map of England and Wales as issued by A H Swiss - click here.

For the section of Improved Map of England and Wales as issued by Arthur Westley - click here.

For the 2 sections of Improved Map of England and Wales as used by Beatrix Cresswell - click here.

For the section of Cary´s Reduced Ordnance Map of England and Wales as issued by G F Cruchley to show Dartmoor Maneouvres - click here.

To return / access the Catalogue of Maps in this work - click here

[1] See for example: http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~victorianphotographs/pixs/doidjb. The illustration of the advertisement is from the reverse of a photograph of two children.

[2] BL maps 1.a.17. Illustration courtesy of the British Library (from a composite photocopy). All rights reserved.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  John Bartholomew –  Imperial Map 2 W H Smith was   founded c.1820 by Henry Edward   and his brother William Henry (who actually ran   the company). But it was not until Henry’s son, also William Henry (1825-1891), became a partner in 1846 that the firm became the well-known booksellers and stationers. In 1848 he started a newsagent shop at Euston with a concession from the L&NW Railway. This was soon to be converted into a virtual railway book-stall monopoly. The firm soon became the largest newsagent in the country and expanded further into circulating libraries.   William Henry later entered Parliament and became the First Lord of the Admiralty in 1877 (Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore was supposedly based on him). [1] W H Smith used to have an estate in Rewe in east Devon where he had a stable built opposite St Mary the Virgin church for the use of the parishioners so that they could tie up their horses. [2] At the same time as the maps below were on sale a similar
Read more
Image
 John Bartholomew 8 -  for Charles Pearson   Charles Arthur   Pearson produced a number of Gossipy Guides   at the beginning of the 20th century. Styled along the lines of the Ward and Lock series of guides they were full of photographic material in a handy pocket size. The two guides relating to Devon were the Guide to Ilfracombe and District (cover title; number 4 in the series)   and Guide to South Devon (number 8 in the series).   Both British Library volumes have accession dates of 1901. It is interesting that Pearson took maps from different sources to include in his two Devon guides. The map of South Devon included in the South Devon Guide was a transfer of Bartholomew’s map: however, the map of North Devon is taken from the plates prepared by Ravenstein for George Philip & Son   in 1899. The scale reveals that this is a Philip’s map (see Pearson 1 ) .   Bartholomew Imperial Map 8 (Pearson)   Size: 257 x 385 mm.                                    English Miles (8
Read more
Image
 John Bartholomew 3 -  for Houlston & Wright / Houlston & Sons   Houlston and Wright , and later Houlston & Sons , were supplied by John Bartholomew with maps for their series of Tourists’ Maps . The output was impressive with maps covering most of England and Wales’ tourist areas but the maps seem to have been all produced between 1865-1875. Houlston and Wright advertised 27 maps on their map of Plymouth and Dartmoor (3c) but Houlston and Sons were advertising 50 maps only a few years later (on cover to 3d) but not Torquay. Although the British Library holds a copy of Sophie Veitch ‘s A Lonely Life   dated 1870 most of the early Houlston & Sons imprints are dated 1872. In the following year Houlston & Sons published a volume of N T Carrington’s poems (Noel Thomas Carrington   1777-1830) in conjunction with William Wood of Devonport. Dartmoor and The Banks of the Tamar were published as one volume, probably to exploit the fact that there were plans for a memorial
Read more