WORLD MOUNTAINS 1855ca GEORGE PHILIP & SON UNUSUAL ANTIQUE COMPARATIVE WORLD MAP

A Comparative View of the Heights of the Principal Mountains and other Elevations in the World​.

Description: Striking and highly detailed fine unusual original colored lithographic comparative map showing the heights of principal mountains.
 
Comparative mountains charts first appeared in the late 18th and early 19th century. Initially these charts focused on Europe or even signal countries, but by the early 19th century the explorations of the world's great peaks had reached a point where such a chart could be composed on a global level.
 
Division into Hemispheres: The engraving visually separates the mountains of the Western Hemisphere (on the left, dominated by the peaks of the Andes and erupting American volcanoes) from those of the Eastern Hemisphere (on the right, with the massive peaks of the Alps and Asia).
 
Measurable Scales: Precise graduated scales are located along the top and bottom edges. The reader, using strings or a ruler, could draw a straight line from the side tables to the mountain peaks to determine their exact height (in feet).
 
Eruptions and Waterfalls: To make the work not only scientific but also artistically dramatic, Thomson includes active volcanoes with dense black smoke and spectacular Waterfalls flowing between the rocks.
 
Information tables: The left, right, and bottom sides contain densely numbered legends. They list the names of the mountains, their geographic locations, and their estimated heights at the time.

Date: 1855 approx. ( undated )

Dimension: Paper size approx.: cm 66,6 x 52,4

Condition: Very strong and dark impression on good paper. Map uncolored. Small foxing and browning. Small marginal tears. Map folded. Conditions are as you can see in the images.

Mapmaker: George Philip (1800 - 1882) was a map publisher and cartographer active in the mid to late-19th century. Philip was born into a Calvinst family in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Around 1819 he apprenticed himself to William Grapel, a Liverpool printer and bookseller. Fifteen years later, in 1834, Philip founded his own Liverpool book and map firm. Philip's earliest cartographic ventures were mostly educational material issued in tandem with John Bartholomew Sr., August Petermann, and William Hughes. In 1848, Philip admitted his son, George Philip Jr. (1823 - 1902) into the firm, renaming it George Philip and Son Ltd. George Philip Jr. ran the firm until his death in 1902, by which time it had developed into a major publishing concern. His successors established the London Geographical Institute, a factory where they embraced modern printing techniques to produce thousands of economical and high quality maps. In April 1988, George Philip & Son was acquired by Octopus Publishing, a branch of Reed International. Nonetheless, today the firm trades and publishes to this day as George Philip and Son.