Antique Map of the Eastern Hemisphere with Population and Religions Tables, 1858

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Original antique map of the eastern hemisphere, a steel engraving colored by hand in outline, with a pale blue wash … Read more Original antique map of the eastern hemisphere, a steel engraving colored by hand in outline, with a pale blue wash along the coasts, lettered "eastern hemisphere" across the top of the sheet. The circular map covers europe, africa, asia and australia, with the indian ocean, the malay archipelago, the western pacific and the "supposed antarctic continent" in the south. The continents are distinguished by their outline color: europe and australia in crimson, asia in yellow and africa in blue, with the boundaries within them drawn in fine lines. Three tables are engraved below the map. At the left, "surface of the globe in square geographic miles" gives the area of each continent and of the sea, with the total credited to "m. Balbi" and restated as "196 057 500 square english miles". At the right, a table headed "population" gives each continent's population, its fraction of the population of the globe and its "mean population to a square geographic mile", to a total of "970 000 000". Beneath it, "religions (m. Hassel)" lists christians, jews, mohammedans, brahmanists, bouddhists and "various idolatries" with their numbers. The imprint below the border reads "london, edward stanford 6 charing cross." and the plate number "2." is engraved in the lower right margin. The map comes from the harrow atlas of modern geography, published in london in 1858 by edward stanford of 6 charing cross and sold at harrow by crossley and clarke, booksellers to harrow school. Its maps were selected from those of the society for the diffusion of useful knowledge (sduk), founded in london in 1826, which issued its map series in parts from 1829 and was wound up in 1848; stanford later issued the maps under his own imprint. The map shows australia divided into west australia, south australia, new south wales and north australia, and lettered "victoria" in the southeast, while much of interior africa is filled with names of peoples and regions such as soudan and the sahara desert. Condition: complete sheet with minor nicks along the left edge, one at the center fold. A center fold, as issued. Light, uneven toning, slightly darker toward the edges. A few small foxing spots in the margin. A few small light flecks in the printed area. This is an original antique map, not a modern reproduction. 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. See less