Treasures of the Empire – rediscovered in scrapyards

TEN copper plates used to print maps of the British Empire in the 18th Century have been rediscovered – in scrapyards.

One of the plates, dated 1779 and described by the British Library as ‘the most remarkable’, was unearthed after it was bought by an Norfolk farmer from a scrapyard to use as a mudguard for his tractor.

The unnamed man contacted the Norfolk County Archivist after spotting its finely engraved lines. British Library archivist Andrew Cook then rushed to Norfolk, where he found himself examining it on a snooker table at a local working men’s club.

The nine other plates, dating from the 1770s and 1780s, were rescued from two scrap dealers.

The plates, which will now go on display at the British Library in North London, were originally owned by the colonial trading organisation the East India Company. They were supposed to have gone to a Westminster hotel for interim safe-keeping when the company moved to a new London premises during the 1860s, but they were lost.

‘We can only surmise that one of the horse-drawn carts carrying them didn’t go to Westminster but a scrap-metal merchant,’ British Library curator Tom Harper told The Mail on Sunday.

He added he was ‘amazed’ that they had turned up 150 years later in scrapyards given the high value of copper when melted down. ‘They’re miracles of survival,’ he added. ‘If you find a piece of copper, you’d melt it down… The survival rate is so phenomenally small.’

Maps from the plates cover areas of what was then British-governed India.

‘They are incredibly important for the history of Britain and the history of the Empire,’ said Harper.

The set of nine plates turned up earlier this year and were brought to the British Library’s attention by an antiquarian map specialist.

The 1779 example turned up again in 1988, but its rediscovery has only just been revealed.

This plate will be displayed in the British Library’s Treasures Gallery in the New Year.