Antique Maps of Denmark, Norway & Sweden

John Crane Dower was a publisher, engraver and draughtsman working at 6 Cumming Lane Place, Pentonville, London. He engraved for many well know cartographers of the day including Henry Teesdale, Thomas Moule, W. Swire and C. & J. Greenwood.

His son John James Dower was born in 1825. He became an engraver and also worked in Pentonville taking the business over after his father's deatch in 1847. He engraved for Orr & Co., the Illustrated London News as well as the Dispatch Atlas.

Born in Arnhem. In 1612 he founded his own business in Amsterdam publishing maps, atlases and globes T ' Opt Water in De Pascascaerte'. In the same year he married Elizabeth Hondius the daughter of Jodocus Hondius the elder and Colette van den Keere. Also in that same year his father-in-law Jodocus died and Jan helped his widow Colette with the publication of the Mercator-Hondius Atlas. Colette and her son Jodocus both died in 1629 and Jan Jansson continued working on the atlas and with the help of Colltte's younger son Henricus Hondius they completed the revision of the Mercator-Hondius Atlas published in 1638 and known as Atlas Novus. Jan Jansson then continued on his own adding maps which culminated in his magnificent 11 volume work Atlas Maior published in five languages.

SDUK is short for Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The idea for the Society was conceived by Henry Brougham the son of Henry and Eleanor Brougham, landowners in Westmorland. He was born in Edinburgh in 1778 and became a student at Edinburgh University at the age of 14. He worked as a lawyer in Edinburgh and later went into politics becoming a member of the House of Commons in 1810. In the 1820’s he was actively involved in educational reform and hence the SDUK with the object of publishing information for people belonging to the working class and middle classes who were unable to get formal education or preferred the idea of self education. One of their most widely read publications was the Penny Magazine. Maps were just another part of their publishing. The map committee was founded in 1828 with the first two maps published in 1829 under the title A Series of Maps, Modern and Ancient. The aim of the Society was to reach as many people as possible. This meant keeping cost of production down with the idea of a low selling price. You would not guess this today as each of their maps is a handsome work of art. Accurate in their detail, finely engraved and printed on a good quality paper. Over a period of 14 years the series expanded to 209 plates with over 3 millions maps being sold. Up until 1842 the design and engraving was under the direct control of the SDUK using the publishers Balwin and Craddock until their insolvency. From 1842 to 1844 the maps were published by Chapman and Hall, Charles Knight from 1844 to the completion of the series in 1846. Knight continued the publishing until 1852 when the plates were sold to George Cox and then Edward Stanford in 1856. The plates were later acquired by Thomas Letts in 1877 and then finally by Mason & Payne in 1885.

Henry Brougham went on to have an interesting but not lifelong career in politics. He was raised to the peerage in 1830 as Baron Brougham of Brougham in the County of Westmorland. He was Lord Chancellor for four years and was responsible for the passings of the Reform Act of 1832 and Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 but after this he never held office again although he continued to contribute to the debates in the House of Lords. He died in 1868

A French family of map and globe makers whose business flourished in Paris from about 1731 to 1778. Gilles Robert de Vaugondy (1688 - 1766) born in Paris was appointed Géographe du Roi in 1734. His eldest son was Didier Robert de Vaugondy. The occurence that boosted the start of their business was the inheritence of the stock of maps and plates of Pierre Moullart Sanson who died in 1730. The bequest was to his friends Jean Frémand a lawyer, Jacques-Simon Perrier a priest and Gilles Robert de Vaugondy. At this tile they were working in on the 'quay de l'Horloge du Palais'. Perrier sold his share soon after and the business run by Giles, his son Didier and Frémond contined to flourish until the death of Giles in 1751. A second son of Giles, Martin de Davigny Vaugondy was by this time assistingthe business in the prepararion of Atlas Universal

Ref: Tooley's Dictinary of Mapmakers

Robert Wilkinson was a cartographer and publisher as well as a map and print seller working in London first at 58 Cornhill 1796 and then 125 Fenchurch Street from 1817 to 1823. After the death of John Bowles the publisher and mapseller in 1779 he acquired the stock of his printing plates. which he updated and in 1794 published A General Atlas, being a Collection of Maps of the World and Quarters, the principal empires, kingdoms &c. with further editins in 1800, 1802, 1808,1810 and another after his death. He also collaborated with Bowles and Carver, successor to John Bowles with a reissue of Emanuel Bowen and Thomas Kitchin's Large English Atlas.

After his death in 1825 his business along with his printing plates were acquired by William Darton Jr. who reissued his General Atlas mentioned above.