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.

An attractive steel engraved map of the continent with good detail along the coastlines that contrasts dramatically with the complete lack of detail in the interior. This is the more desirable version of the map which locates the gold diggings in New South Wales, heralding the beginning of the Australian Gold Rush of 1851. The surrounding vignettes include Natives of the Tribe of Bogan, Australian Parrots and Cockatoo, Natives of Australia Felix, Kangaroos, and Sydney. The illustrations were drawn by J. Marchant and engraved by J.B. Allen, and the map was drawn and engraved by J. Rapkin. Surrounded by a delicately engraved decorative border.

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Condition: B+

Contemporary outline color with a hint of toning and tiny binding holes along the bottom border.