Colton’s Hindostan or British India

1855

Original hand-coloured steel engraving on paper

Without mount: 16.7 x 13.5 in (42.5 x 34.5 cm)
With mount: 23 x 19.8 in (58.5 x 50.5 cm)

A fine copy of Colton's map of India from the first edition, published in 1855. This map was created by Colton and D. Griffing Johnson from a previous wall map of the world, just like the majority of Colton's maps of Asia. Spans the subcontinent, extending from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to Tibet. Bombay, Scinde, Punjab, Nepal, Bhutan, the Bengal Presidency, Madras, and Ceylon are the divisions on the map. Southeast Asia and Burma (Pegu) are shown on an inset map in the lower right quadrant, which represents British claims.

The map depicts most of what is today modern India and what was, when this map was made, British India. One year after the publication of this map, in 1857, the British East Indian Company's sepoys would rise up and lead India's First War of Independence. In the end, this would cause the East India Company to dissolve. India's government was then run directly by the British Crown. Up until gaining independence in 1947, India was dominated by the British Raj.

In addition, this map shows a variety of towns, cities, railroads, rivers, capes, mountains, and other topographical features. Provincial and regional borders are marked on the map using hand-colored pastels in the colors pink, green, yellow, and blue. Surrounded by Colton's typical spiral motif border. Dated and copyrighted to J. H. Colton, 1855. Published from Colton's 172 William Street Office in New York City. Issued as page no. 30 in volume 2 of Colton's 1856 Atlas of the World.

Joseph Hutchins Colton (5 July, 1800 – 29 July, 1893)

From 1833 to 1897, Joseph Hutchins Colton, sometimes known by his pen as J H Colton, was a prominent American publisher of maps and atlases. When Colton relocated to New York in 1831 and made friends with seasoned engraver Samuel Stiles, his business began modestly. From 1833 to 1836, he was employed by Stiles as the "Co" in Stiles and Co. Colton saw early on that railroad maps and immigration guides were becoming more and more popular. Colton, who is neither a cartographer nor an engraver, began his career with buying the copyrights of other cartographers, mostly David H Burr, and republishing them with revised border and engraving work. His initial maps, which showed New York State and New York City, were created in 1833 and were based on older Burr maps. Colton went on to publish a sizable body of well-received guidebooks and railroad maps between 1833 and 1855. George Woolworth Colton (1827 - 1901) and Charles B Colton (1832 - 1916), Colton's two sons, entered the map industry in the early 1850s. Trained as an engraver and cartographer, G W Colton was especially motivated by the concept of producing a comprehensive and expansive globe atlas to rival well-established European companies for the American market. G W Colton published the first volume of the magnificent two-volume Colton's Atlas of the World in 1855. A year later, volume two was released. Atlas of the World's sales fell short of Colton's expectations, possibly due to the cost of buying a two-volume atlas set. As a result, the company also published the atlas in a single book in 1856. All of the original engravings in this excellent book are maps, most of which have a copyright from 1855. An eye-catching border with a spiral motif encircled each map, which would remain a defining feature of Colton's atlas maps far into the 1880s. Atlas of the World, which lacked a border, was replaced in 1857 by the somewhat smaller Colton's General Atlas. The signature Colton spiral border was removed from the majority of early General Atlas editions released between 1857 and 1859 in order to fit the maps into a smaller format volume. Their customers must have missed the border because it was reinstated in 1860 and remained in all subsequent publications of the atlas. There were also darker times ahead, in 1858 Colton was commissioned at a sum of USD 25,000 by the government of Bolivia to produce and deliver 10,000 copies of a large format map of that country. Colton delivered the maps on his own dime and fulfilled the contract in good faith, but Bolivia, which was going through several national revolutions at the time, never paid him. Colton would battle the governments of Bolivia and Peru for the rest of his days over this payment, and in the end, he was compensated up to USD 100,000 thanks to congressional involvement. Still, that had to have been a crushing blow at the time. In the 1859 postal record, J H Colton & Company is mentioned as one of the failing businesses in New York. This must have been the reason that drew Colton to Ross C Browning and Alvin Jewett Johnson. Colton's General Atlas, published in 1859, describes Johnson and Browning as the “Successors of J. H. Colton” implying a buyout; yet, because both businesses went on to publish independently, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. Whatever the truth, this arrangement resulted in Johnson's New Illustrated (Steel Plate) Family Atlas and allowed Browning and Johnson to have access to many of Colton's map plates. Well into the 1880s, Johnson's Atlas was published in tandem with Colton's Atlas. Following that, the Colton company itself released a number of additional atlases, such as the Colton's Quarto Atlas of the World, the Octavo Atlas of the Union, the Illustrated Cabinet Atlas, and an Atlas of America. A sizable corpus of wall maps, pocket maps, and guides were also issued by them. The Colton firm's last known publications are a map and a view that were both released in 1897 in cooperation with the Merchant's Association of New York. On 5 January, 1897, Alice M Colton wed August R Ohman (3 May, 1859 - 22 April, 1934). Ohman joined the Colton publishing company in 1898, and the company operated as Colton, Ohman & Co until 1901.

These works will be shipped unframed

NON-EXPORTABLE

This lot will be shipped in "as is" condition. For further details, please refer to the images of individual lots as reference for the condition of each lot.