----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Meyer Kestnbaum Dept of Sociology University of Maryland Perhaps the most accessible (for you) biographical information on Emanuel (and his son Thomas) Bowen can be found on pp.423-424 of the 'Biographical notes' section in:- The printed maps in the atlases of Great Britain and Ireland: a bibliography, 1579-1870 / Thomas Chubb. - London; Edinburgh: The Homeland Association, 1927 (reprinted Folkestone: Dawson, 1977) It must never be assumed that maps were only ever compiled and engraved for inclusion in atlases (or, as James Akerman of The Newberry Library and Peter van der Krogt of Utrecht University would put, 'atlases'): your map of Europe, for example, appears between pp.456 & [457] in:- Navigantium atque Itinerantium Biblioteca. Or, a complete collection of voyages and travels [...] Originally published [...] By John Harris [...] now carefully revised [...], vol.II, Book II (London: various publishers, 1748) A personal guess at the symbolism of the cartouche would be that the reclining beared male figure represents the commercial importance of inland waterways and the ship represents overseas trade: contemporary context will often help in unravelling such things. Barbara McCorkle (whose in-depth study of 18th-century geographies and their cartographic constituents) is eagerly awaited by many of us cartobibliographic cranks, may well supply you with details on possible further use of the same copper-plate map. Yours sincerely Francis Herbert (Curator of Maps, RGS, London) [log in to unmask]