Arctic Polar Map – Greenland, North Pole & Russian Empire Regions, 1857
€ 340
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1857
Sheet size
37.5 × 45.4 cm (14.8 × 17.9 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-05552-9
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Condition summary: Excellent condition with strong impression and minimal age toning. No repairs, or significant foxing. One light crease in right top. Colors remain fresh, and the paper is firm and stable.
About this sheet
The Arctic regions around the North Pole, an original copper engraving with hand-colored outlines, titled "Polar-Karte enthaltend die Länder u. Meere um den Nord-Pol bis 55° N. Br. u. mehr, Übersicht des Russischen Reichs in Europa, Asien u. Amerika." It was published in 1857 in Gotha by Justus Perthes for Adolf Stieler's Hand-Atlas.
The projection is centered on the pole, with the meridians radiating from it across the open Arctic Ocean. The coasts and islands of northern Europe, Siberia and North America are drawn around the rim: Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland, northern Russia and Siberia, and, at the left, Russian America (Alaska) and the Canadian Arctic with its islands and exploration routes. Political boundaries are picked out in pink, yellow and green outline color. A small inset in the upper left corner shows an Eskimo and Greenland region on a larger scale, and a scale bar of German miles is printed at the upper right.
The sheet records Russian America before the Alaska Purchase of 1867 and the state of Arctic geography in the 1850s, when expeditions were searching the Canadian islands for a Northwest Passage.
