Tourist Maps of Devon

George Washington Bacon & Co. Bacon 4 & 5   The following maps were possibly produced very early in the twentieth century and would, therefore, be beyond the scope of this work. However, G W Bacon was such a prolific publisher at this time that the images could have been ready before the turn of the century .     Bacon 4  The map described below has been seen in three different covers all with the Strand address used by Bacon up to 1917.  Once again Bacon showed how he kept up with the times. The first covers included two cyclists and the later introduced a motor car to join the cyclist. Interestingly he almost always had a man and a woman on his covers reflecting the fact that cycling was for everyone.    Size: 450 x 680 mm.                                  Scale:   4 = 90 mm Miles .   BACON`S MAP OF PLYMOUTH AND 12 MILES ROUND INCLUDING TAVISTOCK, L...

 George Washington Bacon & Co. George Washington  Bacon ( fl .1869 - 1932)  succeeded to the firm of John Wyld III   c .1893 and proceeded to  publish a vast variety of maps (including comic war maps in the 1870s) . The firm still survives today with W & A K Johnston . Bacon´s output was vast and towards the end of the 1800s he was probbly the largest publisher of map material in the United Kingdom.  Although G W Bacon  published a large number of maps, including county maps, the majority were transfers taken from plates that he had bought up from auctions rather than maps that he had specially engraved.  NOTE: Tourist type maps which portrayed the whole of the county of Devon in one or two sheets (.e.g. north and south Devon) are already well documented in The Printed Maps of Devon or in The Victorian Maps of Devon . For example, Bacon took over some of the stock of John Wyld  after it had been acquired from William Faden an...

 George Washington Bacon 3 Bacon 3 The following maps were taken from an unidentified set of plates. The scale is unusual at 3 miles to an inch and the maps so far seen have circles radiating out from Exeter, previously only seen in the revised Cary maps by George Richmond   and A H Swiss   (Batten and Bennett 138A ). Both maps were printed by Bacon and then put in covers for local firms. The covers are a typical size for Bacon (170 x 100 mm) but are bright red only with black writing and (different) illustrations of cyclists. The first map below has an extra line: Revised according to the latest Ordnance Survey but this was probably only an advertising gimmick.   Size: 460 x 580 mm.           Scale: 3 miles to an inch (5 + 10 = 125 mm). No Title. Imprints: G W Bacon & Co., Ltd., 127 Strand, London (AeOS). Notes: Selection of Routes, Scale bar, Reference and note Divided into 5 mile Squares and Circles with Hi...

 George Washington Bacon 2 Bacon 2   A plan of Plymouth with Stonehouse and Devonport was included in the early editions of Bacon’s New Large Scale Ordnance Atlas along with a number of other city plans. The atlas appeared almost each year from circa 1884 to 1893. From about 1895 Bacon issued his atlas as the Commercial and Library Atlas of the British Isles   (cover title was Bacon’s Popular Atlas ) with the county maps (see B&B 134) and omitted the city plans. In 1900-1901 John Bartholomew issued his Royal Atlas . This included a map of Plymouth & Devonport and the similarity to the Bacon map is startling (see Bartholomew Royal Atlas maps 6d). Although there are numerous other town plans in both atlases, no other pair of maps bears such a resemblance. Another map which bears close resemblance but is clearly from a different drawer and engraver is Weller’s plan for The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales   (see F S Weller in Victorian Maps of ...