This magnificent two-sheet wall map of India shows the complex political borders of the subcontinent a decade before the end of East India Company rule in India. Areas wholly under the control of the British East India Company are in red. Otherwise, the choice of colours appears to be more aesthetic than functional.

A list of "Native States" is provided in the lower-left corner of the map, divided according to region and their relationship with Britain. Only four states are listed as wholly independent at this time: Lahore, Nepal, Gwalior (Scindia), and Dholpur. The other states and kingdoms are either protectorates with or without subsidiary agreements.

The 1840s were a period of conflict and unrest for Company rule in India. Six wars were fought during this period between the Company and various Indian rulers seeking independence from the burdensome taxes and political interference of the British. These include the First Anglo-Afghan War, the Sindh War, and two Anglo-Sikh Wars. Though the Company emerged victorious (or at least stalemated) from each of these conflicts, their power and influence was clearly waning as resistance to their rule strengthened. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 (also known as the Indian Mutiny) was the final nail in the coffin of Company Rule, resulting in the British Crown assuming direct control over all of the Company's territory in India.

This map was compiled from surveys conducted by the East India Company, which would have been the most accurate information available to the British at the time of publication. It was drawn and engraved by the brother John and Charles Walker whose firm helped to produce some of the grandest English maps of the 1830s and 1840. The map's publisher, William Houghton Allen & Co., was a specialist merchant and bookseller who largely produced materials related to the British colonies, India in particular. Their chief publication, the "Indian Mail, and Register of Intelligence for British and Foreign India", was a fortnightly newspaper which contained a wealth of news, accounts, appointments, shipping rates, and other information useful for merchants, diplomats, civil servants, and soldiers with business in India.

Original hand colour. Folded in its original slipcase.

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