BOWEN

Emanuel Bowen 1714-67 Thomas Bowen 1767-90

Emanuel Bowen, map and print seller, was engraver to George II and to Louis XV of France. He worked in London from about 1714 onwards producing some of the best and most attractive maps of the century. He had plans for completing a major County Atlas but, finding the task beyond his means, joined with Thomas Kitchin to publish The Large English Atlas. Many of the maps were issued individually from 1749 onwards but the whole atlas was not finally completed until 1760. With one or two exceptions they were the largest maps of the counties to appear up to that time (690 x 510mm) and are unusual in that the blank areas round each map are filled with historical and topographical detail which makes fascinating and amusing reading. The atlas was re-issued later in reduced size.
Apart from his county maps and atlases of different parts of the world he also issued (with John Owen fl. 1720) a book of road maps based, as was usual at that time, on Ogilby but again incorporating his own style of historical and heraldic detail.
In spite of his royal appointments and apparent prosperity Emanuel died in poverty. His son, Thomas, who carried on the business, was no more fortunate, and died in a Clerkenwell workhouse in 1790.

Carl Moreland and David Bannister: Antique Maps, pp. 166.

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