Jack (Bonney) Atherton
A Decorative Map of Martha's Vineyard Island, Massachusetts
LeBaron-Bonney Co., Bradford, Massachusetts: c. 1937-38
Color-process print
17.25 x 22.25 inches, overall
$1,200
A Decorative Map of Martha's Vineyard Island, Massachusetts
Jack Atherton Pictorial Map: c. 1938
Jack Atherton Pictorial Map: c. 1938
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Pictorial map of Martha's Vineyard, with simple cartography showing roads, landmark buildings and lighthouses, and small banner-shaped labels with the names of neighborhoods, ponds, coves and beaches. It is embellished with pictures of flowers, trees, houses, rabbits, seagulls, and with boats and fish in the water. On Gay's Head, tepees and two Native Americans are labeled, "Indians live here." The cartouche features illustrations of a yellow-jacketed New England fisherman and a Native American wrapped in a blanket and notes that the island is "Located four miles south west of Woods Hole, Cape Cod: Discovered by Gosnold in 1602." An additional large inset illustration of a house is captioned, "Marthas [sic] Vineyard was first settled in 1642 by Thomas Mayhew who built a house like this." The illustrational style employs bold black outlines and areas of flat color in red, blue, yellow, orange and green, in the Art Deco taste of the period. There is a colorful compass rose in the upper left corner and the map is enclosed by a nautical rope border. The map is copyrighted 1937, though the publishing company that printed it was founded a year later.
Brothers Lee (LeBaron) Atherton and Jack (Bonney) Atherton opened the LeBaron-Bonney Co. as a bicycle rental business near their family's summer home on Cape Cod in 1938, and quickly expanded into a direct mail business offering pictorial and historic maps, reproduction model sailboats and handcrafted accessories. Among their maps were A Decorative Map of Martha's Vineyard Island, Massachusetts (1937) and A Decorative Map of the State of Maine (1938). Some 20 years later, the company evolved into a specialty business providing upholstery and other products for the restoration of antique cars. The company is still in business in Amesbury, Massachusetts.
Condition: Generally very good with the usual overall light toning and wear.
Reference:
"Our History." LeBaron Bonney Company. http://www.lebaronbonney.com/history.htm (6 September 2011).