CARY, John - Lot 14

CARY, John New British Atlas, being a complete set of Country-Maps, on which are delineated all the Roads, Cities, Towns, Villages, Rivers & Canals. Together with correct general maps of England, Wales, Scotland & Ireland. London, John Stockdale, 1805. Large folio (570 x 465 mm) engraved title and 51 engraved maps including the supplement for the North Riding map, partially colored. Half calf (period style binding), green morocco slipcase. Napoleon's personal copy from his library in Saint Helena, with his stamp and the handwritten note "L'Empereur Napoléon" by Louis-Joseph Marchand (1791-1876) on the title page. The copy appeared in a sale at Versailles (March 1, 1970, lot 13); the binding has since been restored. Louis-Joseph Marchand was Napoleon's valet de chambre and the appointed liquidator of his estate. He became an imperial servant in 1811, remained loyal to Napoleon after his first abdication, and was chosen to replace the Emperor's principal valet, who had fled. Following his apprenticeship as an engraver, John Cary (1754-1835) opened his own store on London's famous Strand in 1783. He soon established a reputation as a cartographer, and published his first atlas, The New and correct British Atlas, in 1787. His New British Atlas was published in 1805, the same year as one of Napoleon's major campaigns in Austria, and the Third Coalition's war against Napoleonic France. Important Napoleonic relic; copy without table leaf.