Map of Hindoostan, Farther India, China, and Tibet

1860

Original hand-coloured steel engraving on paper

Without mount: 11.4 x 13.8 in (29 x 35.1 cm)
With mount: 16.9 x 20 in (43.1 x 50.8 cm)

An exquisite example of the 1864 map of Southeast Asia, comprising Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, as well as Tibet, China, and India by S A Mitchell Jr contains portions of Borneo, Sumatra, and Malaysia, and covers the area in great detail. It is among the most beautiful American atlas maps of this area published in the middle of the 1800s. Original hand-coloured map engraved by W Williams with outlines in hand and decorative border. It has the flowery border found on Mitchell maps published between 1860 and 1865.

Prepared by W Williams for inclusion as plate 80 in the 1864 issue of Mitchell's New General Atlas, containing Maps of the Various Countries of the World, Plans of Cities, Etc., Embraced in Fifty-three Quarto Maps, forming a series of Eighty-Four Map and Plans, together with Valuable Statistical Tables. Dated and copyrighted, 'Entered according to Act of Congress in the Year 1860 by S. Augustus Mitchell in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the U.S. for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.'

Samuel Augustus Mitchell (1792 - 1868)
Early in the 1830s, Samuel Augustus Mitchell started working as a map publisher. The birthplace of Mitchell is Bristol, Connecticut. In 1821, he moved to Philadelphia. Mitchell was irritated by the poor calibre and inaccuracies of the historical school textbooks because he had experience as both a geography writer and a school teacher. His initial maps were an effort to address this issue. Mitchell would rise to prominence as the most well-known American map printer of the mid-19th century in the following two decades. Before obtaining complete copyright for his maps in 1847, Mitchell collaborated with well-known engravers J H Young, H S Tanner, and H N Burroughs. Mitchell either collaborated with Thomas, Cowperthwait and Company in 1849, or sold them his plates, and they carried on publishing Mitchell's Universal Atlas. Before Mitchell's son, Samuel Augustus Mitchell Junior, entered the picture, Charles Desilver had bought the majority of the Mitchell plates and copyrights by approximately 1856. Desilver then proceeded to print the maps, many of which had altered borders and colour schemes. S. A. Mitchell Jr. bought back the majority of the plates from Desilver in 1859 and created his own border with a floral theme. He began publishing his own versions of the New General Atlas in 1860. The younger Mitchell rose to prominence similar to that of his father, producing atlases and maps up until 1887, when the Mitchell firm disbanded and the majority of the copyrights were once more sold.

This work will be shipped unframed

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