A General Atlas Describing the Whole Universe

London: Sayer & Bennett, 1787. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. 1st edition. Folio (16" X 22"), 23 maps on 35 double sheets, all hand colored in outline, with some areas fully colored. A milestone on the trail of progressively expanded versions, a lineage that evolved from Kitchin's single country atlases to the entire world starting in 1773 (the same year he was appointed royal hydrographer to King George III). It is meaningfully dated 1782 on the title page and decidedly distinguished by the earliest map of the nascent United States with its new borders, settled in 1782 and reconfirmed during the Jan. 1783 stage of the Peace of Paris (the treaty ending the American Revolutionary War, finally signed on Sep. 3, 1783). Contemporary boards, rebacked in calf, else near fine throughout, the finest of these we have seen, emitting all the elegance of differential calculus, and scarcer in this condition than reliable reports on where the tooth fairy gets all her money. RBH lists 2 complete copies (incomplete ones don't count) sold at auction since 1975, one of them defective (Sotheby's, 1995), the other one repaired (Sotheby's 2005) meaning no further intact copies were sold in the last 17 years. Ex-Sir George Shuckburgh Bar. Haughty quality and resplendent condition, though the title claiming "the whole universe" is a reach too far. A recent survey revealed that 75% of Americans under 30 could not efficiently access an atlas. 15% could. The other 10% did not know what atlas meant.