A partial set of prints of the engravings made by Francis Place (1647-1728) from drawings which were made by Robert Thacker (d. 1687) circa 1677, the Royal Observatory having been established in 1675 and the building work having been completed by the middle of 1676. For an authoritative summary of our knowledge of the history of the engravings, see Derek Howse, 'Francis Place and the early history of the Greenwich Observatory', New York, Science History Publications, 1975. The full set of Place engravings are published in Howse, drawn from assessment of the collections in the British Library Map Room and the Pepys Library of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

The provenance of the set numbered RGO 116/1/1-10 is described in the note to the Royal Observatory collection by Francis Baily dated March 5, 1838 catalogued at RGO 116/1/11: "The accompanying plates (nine in number) were found by me in an imperfect copy of Dr Halley’s edition (1712) of Flamsteed’s observations...". In fact there are ten engravings in the series as there are two copies of Howse Plate XI, Facies Sextantis Anterior.

Note that all of the engravings are mounted. Cross references have been provided to the printed plates in the Howse volume.