A very rare map. The verso of the fan is stamped "Clarke & Co. No. 26, Strand, invent." Clarke was the inventor of a "new patent sliding fan".

"Few art forms combine functional, ceremonial and decorative uses as elegantly as the fan. Fewer still can match such diversity with a history stretching back 3000 years. Pictorial records show some of the earliest fans date back to around 3000 BC, and there is evidence that the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans all used fans as cooling and ceremonial devices, while Chinese literary sources associate the fan with ancient mythical and historical characters. The first folding fans were inspired by and copied from prototypes brought into Europe by merchant traders and the religious orders that had set up colonies along the coasts of China and Japan. These early fans were regarded as a status symbol. While their 'montures' (i.e. sticks and guards) were made from materials such as ivory, mother-of-pearl, and tortoiseshell, often carved and pierced and ornamented with silver, gold and precious stones, the leaves were painted by craftsmen who gradually amalgamated into guilds such as The Worshipful Company of Fan Makers... The eighteenth century also saw the development of the printed fan: cheaper to manufacture and therefore cheaper to purchase, fans were suddenly available to a much wider audience than had previously been the case" (The Fan Museum).

Exhibited: "London: A Life in Maps", British Library, November 2006-March 2007.