SDUK Map of Calcutta
SKU: 9934
Title:
SDUK Map of Calcutta
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This map of Calcutta includes inset views of the Writers’ Buildings, Government House and Esplanade Row.
Calcutta expanded rapidly under the Governor-Generalship of Wellesley at the beginning of the nineteenth-century. By the time our map was engraved, Calcutta was considered the second city of the Empire, boasting public architecture which led to the further epithet: ‘City of Palaces’. Read more
The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge was founded in 1826 with the high-minded aim of making 'useful' information available to self-taught members of the working and lower middle classes (and possibly to steer them away from anything politically controversial or less improving…).
Some of the material was decidedly abstruse, subscribers fell away and the Society was wound up in 1848; however, the series of 209 maps published over a 14 year period from 1829 onwards were highly praised for their superior quality, accuracy and aesthetic appeal and remain an outstanding achievement.
Condition & Materials
Steel engraving, sheet size 34 x 40.5 cm. Original hand colour, left hand margin cut close as usual (this is one of the larger single-page plates in the series), blank verso.
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