Hindoostan

1824

Original hand-coloured steel engraving on paper

Without mount: 12 x 8.8 in (30.5 x 22.5 cm)
With mount: 18.5 x 15.5 in (47 x 39.5 cm)

A detailed map engraved by N R Hewitt with outline, coloured boundaries, and a vignette “View of Calcutta from Ft.William”. Includes reference to colours, showing provinces, and settlements.

Plate 31 from A General Atlas, Containing Maps illustrating some important periods in Ancient History; and distinct Maps of the several Empires, Kingdoms and States In The World, From Original Drawings according to the latest Treaties by J. Wyld and Engraved by N.R. Hewitt. Edinburgh, Printed for John Thomson & Co for Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, London & John Cumming, Dublin.

James Wyld
James Wyld I (1790 - 1836) and his son James Wyld II (20 November 1812 - 1887) were the principals of an English mapmaking dynasty active in London during much of the 19th century. The elder Wyld was a map publisher under William Faden and did considerable work on the Ordinance Survey. On Faden's retirement, Wyld took over Faden's workshop acquiring many of his plates. Wyld's work can often be distinguished from his son's maps through his imprint, which he signed as 'Successor to Faden'. Following in his father's footsteps the younger Wyld joined the Royal Geographical Society in 1830 at the tender age of 18. When his father died in 1836, James Wyld II was prepared to fully take over and expand his father's considerable cartographic enterprise. Like his father and Faden, Wyld II held the title of official Geographer to the Crown, in this case, Queen Victoria. In 1852, he moved operations from William Faden's old office at Charing Cross East (1837 - 1852) to a new larger space at 475 Strand. Wyld II also chose to remove Faden's name from all of his updated map plates. Wyld II continued to update and republish both his father's work and the work of William Faden well into the late 1880s. One of Wyld's most eccentric and notable achievements is his 1851 construction of a globe 19 metres (60 feet) in diameter in the heart of Leicester Square, London. In the 1840s Wyld also embarked upon a political career, being elected to parliament in 1847 and again in 1857. He died in 1887 following a prolific and distinguished career. After Wyld II's death, the family business was briefly taken over by James John Cooper Wyld (1844 - 1907), his son, who ran it from 1887 to 1893 before selling the business to Edward Stanford. All three Wylds are notable for producing, in addition to their atlas maps, short-run maps expounding upon important historical events, illustrating history as it was happening. Among them are maps related to the California Gold Rush, the New South Wales Gold Rush, the Scramble for Africa, the Oregon Question and more.

This work 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.