Afrique

Large, steel-engraved atlas map of the African continent that flourishes with detail around the areas that had been recently discovered and mapped, specifically around the Zambesi, Niger and Nile Rivers, an the European-colonised regions and trading ports - for example along the Ivory Coast in West Africa and Cape Colony in South Africa. Central Africa shows wide open spaces of unexplored and unmapped territory, left without annotation.



The incredibly detailed parts of the map show the developing road network, commercial trading ports along the coast and the topography is skillfully etched across the map, which can be seen in areas such as the Atlas Mountains and the Drakensberg Range. The names of settlements are given sometimes with alternate spellings and there is the occasional annotation about the terrain, the deserts, the mountains and the river systems. A small legend to explain the colouring of the map illustrates the colonial-claimed possessions: pink for England, yellow for Spain, blue for France, orange for Holland, dark blue for Turkey, green for Portuguese, red for the United States and white for the Imam of Muscat.



In the east, confidently marked from Egypt running south into modern day Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, is the full course of the River Nile, whose source had only just been discovered in 1858 by John Hanning Speke. This is accompanied by the sketchy outlines and the unfinished coastlines of the lakes in the Uniamesi and Great African Lakes region, including that of Lake Victoria (or Victoria Nyanza) - an area that was being traversed by European explorers such as Livingston (in 1866), Burton (between 1856-60), Speke (between 1856-1859) and Stanley (during his search for the missing Dr. Livingston in 1869-72).



The map has been engraved by Charles Dyonnet and the geography mapped by A. H. Dufour.

Features original hand colour. [AFR4071] (SL)