The maps from The Illustrated Atlas were first published in serial form to a target audience that led insular lives due to the expense and hardship of travel. All that changed as the progress of the nineteenth century brought swift and dramatic changes in public awareness of far away places. Tallis' maps no doubt played an important role in this dramatic awakening. These maps not only provided up-to-date geographical knowledge, but also used vignette views within the map's design to show the native people and their occupations, cities and points of interest. The maps hark back to a cartographic tradition from the Dutch mapmakers of the seventeenth century with finely engraved decorative borders. The maps were drawn and engraved by John Rapkin with views drawn and engraved by a number of prominent artists. The maps were issued as a complete volume from 1851 until about 1865. Some of the maps were also published in other history books published by Tallis including British Colonies and, without the vignettes, in geographical dictionaries and encyclopedias until about 1880.

Great pair of decorative steel engraved maps that are highly detailed and feature Tallis' lovely vignettes and borders. The former (12.9 x 10.0") covers the region between the Urals and east to Kamtchatka. Finely engraved vignettes of Troitsk, Kamtchatkan dogs, Skorskarskoi Pagost and a scene of men and dogs being attacked by a giant bear. The latter (9.6 x 13.8") details the Russian possessions between the Urals and west to the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia, and south to the Black and Caspian Seas. The beautifully engraved and artistically rendered vignettes show the Neoskon Prospect in St. Petersburg, Polish Captives on their way to Siberia, a Russian Bear, Napoleon's Flight from Moscow, a horse drawn sleigh and costumed figures. A great pair of matched maps with the vignettes and borders left uncolored, as issued.

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Condition: B+

Original outline color with pleasant light toning and a few faint spots.