1939 Award Winning Raggio Manuscript Map of Andorra

This is an attractive 1939 manuscript or hand drawn map of the Principality of Andorra by Antonio Raggio. The map covers the sixth smallest country in Europe located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain. Highly detailed, it notes rivers, roads, towns, cities, mountains and surrounding regions. The lower part of the map is beautifully illustrated with drawings of mountains and a farmer plowing with cattle.

This map is part of Antonio F. Raggio’s Coleccion de Europe, a series of ink and watercolor maps on cards prepared for the Exposicion Filatelica Internacional or CYTRA’s 11th Congreso de la Union Postal Universal (World Postal Congress), held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1839. The series included maps representing many European countries as well as parts of America, and won the award given by ‘La Sociedad Filatelica Argentina’. This map, like many maps in the series, is accompanied by a fact card, which includes detailed information of the country. The text on the fact card is superimposed on an illustration of mountains. Although the detail on the map cards is extremely fine, it is likely that the manuscript cards were proof drawings or models for the engraving of stamps.