| Method | Steel engraved with original hand colour |
| Artist | Rapkin, John |
| Published | The Illustrations by H. Warren & Engraved by J. Rogers. The Map Drawn & Engraved by J. Rapkin. John Tallis & Company. London & New York. [c.1850] |
| Dimensions | 265 x 330 mm each |
| Notes |
A world map printed over two sheets as a pair of hemispheres, eastern and western, engraved by Rapkin for Tallis' popular 'Illustrated Atlas.' Borders of countries and continents are picked out in original outline hand colour, and in the eastern hemisphere, encompassing Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australasia, the mail route from London to various colonial centres including Calcutta (Kolkata), Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Australian state capitals is plotted as a blue line. Antarctica is almost completely unplotted, apart from sections of coast at the bottom of the Western Hemisphere representing South Shetland and South Victoria. Surrounding both maps are numerous vignettes engraved by Rogers, showing national dress, and flora and fauna endemic to each continent. John Tallis was a British publisher and one of the most popular cartographers of the 19th Century. Tallis maps were highly valued for their accuracy, but perhaps more so for their charming vignettes and ornamentation. Engraved by John Rapkin, these maps were praised by the New York Sun as "the most accurate and most splendid publication of the kind ever issued". The Bristol Times observed that Mr. Tallis maps "are not only critically correct, but are accompanied with elegant and appropriate engravings illustrative of the manners and costumes of the different countries." John Rapkin was an engraver and mapmaker active in Britain in the mid-nineteenth century. He drew and engraved the maps for John Tallis' 'The Illustrated Atlas and Modern History of the World' (1845-51), which was later re-issued by the London Printing and Publishing Company. He also drew and engraved maps for R. Montgomery Martin's 'British Colonies, their history' (1849), and Wright's 'Universal Pronouncing Dictionary' (c.1850). Condition: Minor time toning to margins. Chips and binders holes to bottom edges of sheets. Foxing to top margin of western hemisphere. Manuscript '5' in old hand to verso of eastern hemisphere, otherwise blank. |
| Framing | mounted |
| Price | £650.00 |
| Stock ID | 53103 |