Grand imposing wall map of Hampshire, sectionalised and backed on linen.

This is one of the celebrated series of county wall maps by the Greenwood Brothers. These maps were a labour of love, a prestige project and a truly luxury item. They were based on new surveys and painstakingly detailed and surveyed. Like their Ordnance Survey counterparts, they were scaled at one inch to the mile, but there the comparison ended as they were sumptuously decorated and beautifully coloured.

Unfortunately, their sales did not justify the cost of their production and the Greenwood firm suffered financial hardship as a result.

This map of Hampshire is an archetypal example of the series. It is unusual as it was produced in one sheet. Many were issued in several sheets. There is a beautiful cartouche of Winchester Cathedral on the lower right.

There is a slight eccentricity in the naming of the county. The Greenwoods used the old name for Hampshire, "The County of Southampton" for their titling. Although this is technically correct, the county had been known as Hampshire for centuries. Officially, the name did not change until 1959.

Original colour. Folded. [HANTS716]