William Faden American (1750-1836) VIEW OF CHARLES TOWN FROM THE BRISTOL COMMODORE SIR PETER PARKER etching, framed unsigned image size: H8" W12" *Artist biography: William Faden was an English cartographer and map publisher who produced some remarkably fine engraved maps. He was associated with the important map publisher, Thomas Jefferys, whom Faden succeeded in business after Jefferys' death in 1771, becoming Geographer to His Majesty and the Prince of Wales. It was in Faden's workshop that the first sheets of the maps of the Ordnance Survey were engraved at the end of the eighteenth century. Faden's catalog of 1822 lists over 350 publications, including maps, globes, city and military plans and atlases. His most valuable publication is his North American Atlas. It was not Faden's practice to publish atlases with a printed title page or table of contents, although the latter was usually added in manuscript. Instead his atlases were made up of collections of maps, both his own and others, to suit the collector's requirements. This copy of the North American Atlas has a handwritten list of contents and a printed title page, dated 1776, although the maps date from 1770 to 1780. The Atlas contains thirty-nine colored maps, several of which are Revolutionary battle plans, some showing troop movements.