Edward Stanford was to become one of the great names in cartography during the second half of the 19th century. He was born in 1827 and by 1852, he had become a partner with Trelawney Saunders, who trained him in map publishing. The partnership did not last long, dissolving in 1853 but Stanford remained in charge of the company. In 1857, he decided to reinvent the business under the name of "Stanford's Geographical Establishment" and he employed several important map makers in their own right as contractors.

One of the prestige products used to launch the newly established Geographical Establishment was a series of "Library Maps" possibly a play on the term "Library Globe" or maps suitable for a gentleman's library. They were huge, monumental folding maps which could either be stored on a shelf in their folded state, no larger than a book, or they could be displayed in their full size as extraordinary statement pieces.

The first of these library maps was the continent of Europe, issued in 1858, followed by the continents and the world over the next four years. The eminent Scottish firm of W. & A.K. Johnston was heavily involved in their production, with their names prominent under the title of the map. It is unclear what the division of labour or indeed the terms of the contract were between Stanford and Johnston in the issuing of these pieces. Certainly, it is unusual to have two such prominent names on the same map although it is clear that Stanford was the main marketer and retailer for these pieces in London.
The series was both prestigious and enormously successful. All of the maps went through multiple issues over decades and they were continually updated. That was their greatest appeal to an increasingly sophisticated audience who were becoming accustomed to a logistically networked world of illustrated newspapers, telegraph cables, and steam ships.This map wall map of Asia is a prime example of the series. It was first issued in 1862, when the Turkish Empire was still a mighty ruler in the Middle East, Qing China was reeling from the internal struggle brought about by the Taiping Rebellion and Japan had just welcomed their first meaningful European diplomatic missions in over two hundred years.

This edition of the map was issued in 1927, after the Great War which changed everything. The extent of Chinese territory has changed very little but its internal structure is now a Republic, as stated on the map. The Japanese Empire encompasses the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan. The Ottoman Empire has been dissolved with the British and French dividing many of their Middle Eastern possessions in the Levant. The Arabian Peninsula is independent; Abdulaziz ibn Saud is in the process of uniting the four regions which he would combine to found Saudi Arabia. Yemen is marked green and the territory claimed by Oman includes the south western shore of the Gulf. A deep crimson on the map indicates British territory including much of India, Bahrain, Myanmar, Malaysia and Northwest Borneo. In the south, the Dutch East Indies are separated from the rest of the Far East as are the Philippines which are marked as American Territory after the Spanish American War. The other vast landmass shown on the map is Siberia, now shown as Soviet Siberia to denote its new name as part of the Soviet Socialist Republics founded in 1922.

As is usual with Stanford his access to multiple sources such as British Parliamentary Papers, the India Office and the Royal Geographical Society, ensured that the map is superbly detailed and in the case of this example, brilliantly coloured, combining to make an object of great relevance to 20th and 21st century history and as well as strong aesthetic attraction.
Our example of this map is on four sheets joined and framed.

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