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Thursday, 15 March 2007, 16:34 GMT

Rare atlas auctioned for £670,000

Picture of a map by Christopher Saxton A rare copy of the first printed atlas of England and Wales has sold for £669,600 at a Sotheby's auction.

The work, by the Wakefield surveyor Christopher Saxton, also has a rare set of charts depicting Sir Francis Drake's journey to the West Indies and America.

Printed between 1579 and 1590, it runs to 40 pages of maps and plates - a landmark in Elizabethan cartography, a spokesman for Sotheby's said.

The new owner was an anonymous telephone bidder.

The atlas had been expected to sell for between £500,000 and £700,000.

The charts illustrating Drake's voyage across the Atlantic from 1585 to 1586 were made by Giovanni Battista Boazio.

The whole work is regarded as a prime example of early map making, showing for the first time in print a picture of England and its geography.

The book was offered as part of the sale of the library of the Earls of Macclesfield.



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Related to this story:
Rare maps chart England's history (28 Feb 07 |  Bradford )
Old atlases fetch £6m at auction (18 Oct 05 |  Oxfordshire )
Lord auctions atlases after blaze (31 May 05 |  Oxfordshire )

RELATED INTERNET LINKS
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Sir Francis Drake profile
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