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1857 Colton Map of the East Indies (Singapore, Thailand, Borneo, Malaysia)

EastIndies-colton-1857
$100.00
East Indies. - Main View
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1857 Colton Map of the East Indies (Singapore, Thailand, Borneo, Malaysia)

EastIndies-colton-1857


Title


East Indies.
  1857 (dated 1855)     12.5 x 15.5 in (31.75 x 39.37 cm)     1 : 12672000

Description


This is a beautiful and uncommon 1857 edition example of Colton's map of the East Indies. Like most of Colton's Asia maps, this map was derived from an earlier wall map of the world produced by Colton and D. Griffing Johnson. It covers from Burma in the extreme northwest to New Guinea and east Timor in the southeast and includes the modern day countries of Burma, Pegu, Siam (Thailand), Cambodia, Cochin China (South Vietnam), Malay (Malaysia), Borneo, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Singapore.

This map is significant as it was among the first American maps to detail the Island and Strait of Singapore - appearing bottom left. When this map was made, Singapore, governed by the British east India Company, was experiencing a massive tide of immigration and growth due to its open immigration and free trade policies. Also at this time, Burma was under the British Raj, and much of modern day Indonesia including Sumatra and parts of Borneo were part of the Dutch East Indies. The French dominated Indochina, including Cambodia and Vietnam, and most of the Philippines were a Spanish colony. Of all the nations of Southeast Asia, only Thailand (Siam) retained its national sovereignty throughout the colonial era.

This map also identifies various cities, towns, rivers, capes, mountains, and an assortment of additional topographical details. Map is hand colored in pink, green, yellow and blue pastels outlines to define provincial and regional boundaries.

Like most Colton maps this map is dated 1855, but was issued in the 1857 issue of Colton's Atlas. This was the only issue of Colton's Atlas that appeared without his trademark grillwork border. Dated and copyrighted: 'entered according to the Act of Congress in the Year of 1855 by J. H. Colton & Co. in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.' Published from Colton's 172 William Street Office in New York City, NY.

Cartographer


Joseph Hutchins Colton (July 5, 1800 - July 29, 1893), often publishing as J. H. Colton, was an important American map and atlas publisher active from 1833 to 1897. Colton's firm arose from humble beginnings when he moved to New York in 1831 and befriended the established engraver Samuel Stiles. He worked under Stiles as the 'Co.' in Stiles and Co. from 1833 to 1836. Colton quickly recognized an emerging market in railroad maps and immigrant guides. Not a cartographer or engraver himself, Colton's initial business practice mostly involved purchasing the copyrights of other cartographers, most notably David H. Burr, and reissuing them with updated engraving and border work. His first maps, produced in 1833, were based on earlier Burr maps and depicted New York State and New York City. Between 1833 and 1855 Colton would proceed to publish a large corpus of guidebooks and railroad maps which proved popular. In the early 1850s Colton brought his two sons, George Woolworth Colton (1827 - 1901) and Charles B. Colton (1832 - 1916), into the map business. G. W. Colton, trained as a cartographer and engraver, was particularly inspired by the idea of creating a large and detailed world atlas to compete established European firms for the U.S. market. In 1855, G.W. Colton issued volume one the impressive two volume Colton's Atlas of the World. Volume two followed a year later. Possibly because of the expense of purchasing a two-volume atlas set, the sales of the Atlas of the World did not meet Colton's expectations and so, in 1856, the firm also issued the atlas as a single volume. The maps contained in this superb work were all original engravings and most bear an 1855 copyright. All of the maps were surrounded by an attractive spiral motif border that would become a hallmark of Colton's atlas maps well into the 1880s. In 1857, the slightly smaller Colton's General Atlas replaced the Atlas of the World, which lacked the border. Most early editions of the General Atlas published from 1857 to 1859 do not have the trademark Colton spiral border, which was removed to allow the maps to fit into a smaller format volume. Their customers must have missed the border because it was reinstated in 1860 and remained in all subsequent publications of the atlas. There were also darker times ahead, in 1858 Colton was commissioned at sum of 25,000 USD by the government of Bolivia to produce and deliver 10,000 copies a large format map of that country. Although Colton completed the contract in good faith, delivering the maps at his own expense, he was never paid by Bolivia, which was at the time in the midst of a series national revolutions. Colton would spend the remainder of his days fighting with the Bolivian and Peruvian governments over this payment and in the end, after a congressional intervention, received as much as 100,000 USD in compensation. Nonetheless, at the time it must have been a disastrous blow. J. H. Colton and Company is listed as one of New York's failed companies in the postal record of 1859. It must have been this that led Colton into the arms of Alvin Jewett Johnson and Ross C. Browning. The 1859 edition of Colton's General Atlas lists Johnson and Browning as the 'Successor's to J. H. Colton' suggesting an outright buyout, but given that both companies continued to publish separately, the reality is likely more complex. Whatever the case may have been, this arrangement gave Johnson and Browning access to many of Colton's map plates and gave birth to Johnson's New Illustrated (Steel Plate) Family Atlas. The Johnson's Atlas was published parallel to Colton's atlas well in to the 1880s. The Colton firm itself subsequently published several other atlases including an Atlas of America, the Illustrated Cabinet Atlas, the Octavo Atlas of the Union, and Colton's Quarto Atlas of the World. They also published a large corpus of wall maps, pocket maps, and guides. The last known publications of the Colton firm date to 1897 and include a map and a view, both issued in association with the Merchant's Association of New York. Alice M. Colton married August R. Ohman (May 3, 1859 - April 22, 1934) on January 5, 1897. In 1898, Ohman joined the Colton firm, which continued to publish as Colton, Ohman & Co. until 1901. More by this mapmaker...

Source


Colton G.W., Colton's Atlas of the World Illustrating Physical and Political Geography, New York, 1857 (First Borderless Edition).    

Condition


Very good. Overall age toning. Minor damage over top left border.

References


Rumsey 0149.098 (1856 edition). Phillips (Atlases) 816.