Thomas Starling Ottoman Empire Map — Family Cabinet Atlas, Hand-Colored, 1831
$ 92.4
Description
Thomas Starling Ottoman Empire Map — Family Cabinet Atlas, Hand-Colored, 1831. Edition: From Thomas Starling's Family Cabinet Atlas, Edward Bull, London — one of the most finely-engraved miniature atlases of the 1830s. A steel-engraved miniature atlas plate of the Ottoman Empire — Balkans, Anatolia, and the Levant — from Thomas Starling's Family Cabinet Atlas, published in London by Edward Bull c. 1831–1834. A steel-engraved miniature atlas plate of the Ottoman Empire — Balkans, Anatolia, and the Levant — from Thomas Starling's Family Cabinet Atlas, published in London by Edward Bull c. 1831–1834. Original period hand-coloring in wash delineates the political boundaries of an empire in active contraction: Greece newly independent, Algeria under French invasion, Egypt in open revolt. Paired with its facing gazetteer page as originally bound. The print: Steel engraving on wove paper — the harder metal allowed the hair-thin lines and micro-printing sharpness that defines the miniature-atlas format. Starling's lettering is still fully legible nearly two centuries after printing. Original period hand-color wash, retained vivid. The geography: The Ottoman-held territories at a moment of dramatic fragmentation, c. 1830. Greece is rendered as a newly independent state (1830), Algeria shows the French invasion underway, Egypt is mapped under Muhammad Ali's open revolt against Constantinople. Multi-audience appeal across Middle Eastern history, Balkan studies, and Islamic-world cartography. Edition: From Thomas Starling's Family Cabinet Atlas, Edward Bull, London — one of the most finely-engraved miniature atlases of the 1830s. Individual Starling plates surface infrequently; most secondary-market inventory is complete bound volumes. Condition: Age-appropriate toning on 190+ year-old wove paper. Original hand-color wash remains vivid across the political boundaries. For collectors of pre-Crimean-War cartography, Ottoman / Balkan history, and Regency-era English miniature atlas plates — the intact gazetteer pair is the uncommon combination. Included: Loose atlas plate with matching gazetteer leaf, unframed.
