Antique Plan of Edinburgh and its Environs with the Castle, 1847
US$1,219
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1847
Mapmaker / artist
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge
Publisher
Charles Knight and Co., 22 Ludgate Street, London
Technique
Steel Engraving
Coloring
Original hand color
Sheet size
35 × 43 cm (13.8 × 16.9 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14487-1-15
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
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Handling soiling along the edges of both sheets. Light foxing in the margins of both sheets. All corners complete on every sheet. Shallow nicks along an edge of one of the two sheets.
About this sheet
This is a set of two original sheets sold together, two antique maps steel engraved and published in the atlas of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The city sheet shows the Old Town running down the ridge from the Castle to Holyrood, the New Town laid out in its Georgian grid across the drained loch, Calton Hill and Arthur's Seat at either end, and a vignette of Edinburgh Castle on the plate. Its lettering records that it was reduced by permission from the large plan of Messrs Laing and Forbes. The companion sheet opens out to the country around, from the Firth of Forth and the port of Leith through Linlithgow and Haddington to Peebles and the chapel at Roslin.
The sheets are plates 176 and 177 of the third volume of the Society's atlas, Plans of Cities, Stars and Index to Places, published in London by Charles Knight at 22 Ludgate Street in 1847 and lettered as a new edition corrected to the present time. The sheets are lettered as drawn by W. B. Clarke and engraved by E. Turrell. The outline and water coloring is original hand color, applied by the publisher before the sheets were bound into the volume.
Edinburgh is the clearest example anywhere of a medieval town and a planned Georgian town sitting side by side, and the city sheet shows that contrast better than any photograph. The environs sheet then sets the whole thing in its landscape of firth and hills. The two were engraved to the same size for the same volume and they frame as an obvious pair.
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Handling soiling along the edges of both sheets. Light foxing in the margins of both sheets. All corners complete on every sheet. Shallow nicks along an edge 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.
