Maps and Prints

  A very rare scientific survey of the crucial Bombay-Poona (Mumbai-Pune) corridor, issued by the Survey of India in Dehra Dun just after World War II and in the twilight days of the British Raj; showcasing a wealth of information on urban development in one of India’s fastest growing regions at critical historical juncture.

A rare and fine pair of sea charts, presented together on a single sheet, of Kayalpatnam and Thoothukudi / Tuticorin (Tamil Nadu), from the ‘Secret Atlas’ of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), issued in Amsterdam by Johannes van Keulen II.

  Very Rare - a large format, separately issued work that is the first scientifically accurate, and by far and away the most detailed map to date of the Portuguese colony of Diu, an island strategically located just off the coast of Gujarat, that was long a great mart of trade and cross-cultural exchange, under Lisbon’s control from 1535 to…

      Extremely rare – no other examples traced – the authoritative city plan of Hyderabad created in the twilight days of Mir Osman Ali Khan’s transformative rule when the city was one of India’s leaders in urban planning and industrial modernization, the result of over a generation of ultra-advanced, continuously updated surveys made under the direction of the…

  A sophisticated topographical map, of charmingly crude ‘provincial’ printing style, of the strategically key district of Satara, in today’s southwestern Maharashtra, expressly made for the British colonial regime to depict the recent developments in local administration, but to also satisfy important military and infrastructure mandates; created by J.W. Windsor of the Quarter Master General’s Department (Bombay Army), and printed…

  A fine early, edition of example of James Wyld’s highly important wall map of India, made under the direction of the artist and banker Robert Melville Grindlay, attractively mounted in wall map format with rollers.

  A seemingly unique engineer’s planning map of the Cirebon-Kroya Railway, a vital link that traversed the midriff of Java, connecting the north coast and south coast rail networks, likely made in 1912-3, just before construction was commenced on the project, which was completed in 1917; the map is printed by an unusual blue-tinted photolithographic technique and features the proposed…

  Very Rare – the first broadly accurate British sea chart of the southwestern coast of Sumatra, a critical region home to the important British base of Benccoolon-Fort Marlborough (modern Bengkulu), published by William Herbert in 1758.

François Valentijn’s magnificent map of Indonesia’s Spice Islands, the finest map of the region made during the dramatic era of the Dutch East India Company’s hegemony.

  Very Rare - the first broadly accurate British sea chart of the Straits of Sunda, but also extending to include West Java (including Jakarta) and southeastern Sumatra, published by William Herbert in 1758.

An unique and extraordinary artifact of the successful Dutch endeavours to gain colonial dominion over West Sumatra during the 1830s, in the wake of the Padri War (concluded 1837) and the 1832 intervention against the Aceh Sultanate, being an impressively detailed original manuscript itinerary map of West Sumatra, including it rugged Minangkabau Highlands, depicting a dense archipelago of villages and…