Turkey in Europe and Northern Italy, Mitchell Maps, Hand Colored Pair, 1850

About this sheet

A pair of original antique hand colored American atlas maps of 1850, sold together and not separately. Both carry the same ornate scrollwork border in green and black that is the signature of the Mitchell atlases, both are washed in the clear pink, yellow and green of the Philadelphia colorists, and both carry the same copyright line along the lower edge: entered according to act of Congress in the year 1850 by Thomas Cowperthwait and Company. One sheet gives Turkey in Europe and Greece, the other the north part of Italy. They are two original sheets sold together as one lot, and the set is never split.

One sheet carries Turkey in Europe and Greece, the provinces washed in pink, yellow and green with the Aegean islands scattered across the right hand side, a table of towns in a ruled panel and the Greek peninsula drawn at a scale that names every district. The other gives the north part of Italy, lettered ITALY NORTH PART, with Venetia and Lombardy in yellow, the Papal States in pink and Tuscany in green, the Adriatic coast of Dalmatia along the right edge and a note on the recent history of the Italian states set in the lower margin.

Samuel Augustus Mitchell was the most successful American map publisher of the middle of the nineteenth century, and his New Universal Atlas, issued from Philadelphia by Thomas Cowperthwait and Company, went through edition after edition. These are the full folio sheets with the complete decorative border, not the smaller school atlas plates that are far commoner. The two maps cover the southern edge of Europe between them at a moment when both regions were about to be redrawn, Italy by unification and the Ottoman Balkans by a long series of wars. Mitchell maps are among the most decorative of all nineteenth century atlas maps and the border is the reason: it reads as ornament from across a room. A Greek sheet and an Italian sheet make an obvious Mediterranean pair, and both are places people have been on holiday, which matters more for sales than any cartographic consideration. They frame identically and hang either side of a window or a door.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Handling soiling along the edges of both sheets. Scattered foxing in the margins of both sheets. Slight wear at the corners of one of the two sheets.

These are original antique maps, not modern reproductions. 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.