1853 Meyer Map of Belgium and Luxembourg

This is a beautiful 1852 example of Joseph Meyer's map of Belgium and Luxembourg. It covers from North Flanders to Luxembourg and includes parts of Holland (The Netherlands), Germany and France. Throughout, the map identifies various cities, towns, rivers and assortment of additional topographical details.

In 1830, after the Belgian Revolution led to the secession of Belgium from the United Kingdom of Netherlands into the independent Kingdom of Belgium, Luxembourg, which also took part in the Belgian Revolution, was considered to be a province of the new Belgian state. The Netherlands however, refused to recognize the new country of Belgium until the 1839 Treaty of London. This Treaty also granted Luxembourg the status of Grand Duchy, while its western portion was ceded to Belgium as a province. In 1842, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg became part of the German Customs Union. Luxembourg, during this period, suffered economic hardships which led to many of its citizens immigrating to the United States. The Second Treaty of London, following the Luxembourg Crisis finally reaffirmed Luxembourg's independence in 1867.

This map was issued in Meyer's Zeitung Atlas. Although all the maps in this atlas are not individually dated, the title page and maps were often updated while the imprint with the date was not, causing confusion to the exact date for some of the maps. Moreover some maps in the atlas were taped in at a later date as an update to the atlas. We have dated the maps in this collection to the best of our ability.