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.

This lot of 2 maps covers Scandinavia with good detail of the counties. Both maps were drawn and engraved by John Rapkin. The map of Sweden and Norway includes six interesting vignettes of the people and countryside with an especially nice view of Stockholm, as well as one showing skiers, here called Skate Runners. These vignettes were drawn by J. Marchant and engraved by J.H. Kernot. The Denmark map has vignettes of Copenhagen, the royal crest of Sleswig, Elsinore, people in native costume, and horses. They were drawn by H. Warren and engraved by J.B. Allen. Both maps were drawn and engraved by John Rapkin and include the type of beautiful, steel-engraved borders associated with this series of maps.

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Condition: B+

Original outline color. Both maps have light offsetting, short centerfold separations, and light soiling and toning mostly confined to the blank margins.