Thomas Starling Hand-Colored Map of Prussia — Family Cabinet Atlas, 1831
$ 66.0
Description
Thomas Starling Hand-Colored Map of Prussia — Family Cabinet Atlas, 1831. Engraving: Steel plate by Thomas Starling, the dominant miniature-map engraver of 1820s–40s London. Plate XVI from Thomas Starling's Family Cabinet Atlas (London, 1831–1834) — a steel-engraved miniature map of the Kingdom of Prussia and the patchwork of German principalities that made up the pre-1871 Confederation. Plate XVI from Thomas Starling's Family Cabinet Atlas (London, 1831–1834) — a steel-engraved miniature map of the Kingdom of Prussia and the patchwork of German principalities that made up the pre-1871 Confederation. Original period hand-coloring in watercolor wash highlights the political boundaries of a sovereign landscape that ceased to exist within a generation. Facing-page gazetteer with population and administrative data intact on verso. Engraving: Steel plate by Thomas Starling, the dominant miniature-map engraver of 1820s–40s London. Micro-printing of place names, boundary lines, and statistical tables remains sharp and fully readable after 190+ years — a hallmark of Starling's technique on steel. Geography: Pre-unification Central Europe in its 1831 configuration: Kingdom of Prussia at its restored Vienna borders, the German Confederation as a patchwork of sovereign and semi-sovereign states, the Habsburg territories distinct from German space. The political map Bismarck would erase forty years later. Hand-coloring: Original 1830s watercolor wash applied to political boundaries. Period coloring is distinct from modern additions (pigment aging, application style) and commands a clear premium in the antique-map market. Condition: Wove paper with age-appropriate toning consistent with 190+ years. Hand-color bright throughout. Moderate margins. For collectors of pre-unification German cartography, genealogy researchers tracing Confederation-era records, and Central European history scholars — Starling's Family Cabinet Atlas carries a mid-tier cartographic pedigree and royal patronage from William IV and Queen Adelaide. Included: Loose atlas leaf with facing-page gazetteer, unframed.
