Antique Map of the World in Two Hemispheres, with Rivers and Mountains, 1870

About this sheet

A double hemisphere map of the world, the western and eastern halves set side by side, with the continental outlines and the principal political divisions of 1870 laid down in fine engraved line. Below the globes the sheet carries two of the comparative diagrams that Victorian atlases used to teach physical geography: a comparative view of the lengths of the principal rivers of the world, drawn as a descending series of channels, and a comparative view of the heights of the principal mountains, ranked against the level of the sea. The double hemisphere world map is the most collected form of antique world map, and the comparative panels give this example a graphic interest beyond the geography itself. It is a natural centrepiece for a study or a library wall.

Black's General Atlas of the World was the standard British household atlas of the middle nineteenth century, issued in Edinburgh by the publishing house of Adam and Charles Black, the firm better known to most readers as the publisher of Sir Walter Scott and of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Its maps were engraved on steel, most of them under the direction of the Edinburgh cartographer John Bartholomew, whose clear lettering and restrained hill shading gave the atlas a legibility that its heavier rivals lacked. Successive issues were revised as boundaries moved and railways spread, so a sheet from Black's records the world as an educated Victorian reader understood it in the year the plate was printed.

Sheets from this atlas are sought after today both as reference cartography and as decorative material, the generous folio format suiting a wall quite as readily as a portfolio. Hung as a pair or a group, the plates make a handsome and genuinely informative wall.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with the centre fold as issued and light toning and a few small spots in the margins; the image is clean.

This is an original antique map, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.