France....Thomas Kelly
Cartographer : - Findlay, Alexander George 1812 – 1875
- Date: - 1841
- Size: - 10 1/2in x 8in (265mm x 205mm)
- Ref#: - 31186
- Condition: - (A) Very Good Condition
Description:
This original steel plate engraved antique map by Alexander Findlay, in 1841 was published by Thomas Kelly in Barclays Dictionary
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 10 1/2in x 8in (265mm x 205mm)
Plate size: - 10 1/2in x 8in (265mm x 205mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (10mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light soiling
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Alexander Findlay was an English geographer and hydrographer. His services to geography have been compared with those of Aaron Arrowsmith and August Heinrich Petermann.
Findlay was born in London, 6 January 1812, a descendant of the Findlays of Arbroath, Forfarshire. His grandfather was a shipowner there, who moved his business to the River Thames. Findlay\\\'s father, Alexander Findlay was one of the original fellows of the Royal Geographical Society.
The son Alexander George Findlay devoted himself to the compilation of geographical and hydrographical works. On the death of John Purdy, the hydrographer, in 1843, he took a leading position. In 1844 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and was a member of its council and committees. His researches in meteorology attracted the attention of Robert FitzRoy.
On the death of Richard Holland Laurie of Laurie & Whittle, the London geographical and print publisher, in 1858, Findlay took over the business. In 1885, when Van Keulen of Amsterdam, founded in 1678, was dissolved, it became the oldest active firm in Europe for the publication of charts and nautical works.
Findlay died at Dover on 3 May 1875
Findlay\\\'s atlases of Ancient and Comparative Geography were known internationally. In 1851 he completed the revision of Richard Brookes\\\'s Gazetteer, and the same year published his first major work, on the Coasts and Islands of the Pacific Ocean, in 2 vols. of 1,400 pages.
Findlay issued six large nautical directories, which have proved invaluable to the maritime world. They included The North Atlantic Ocean, The South Atlantic Ocean, The Indian Ocean, Indian Archipelago, China, and Japan, The South Pacific Ocean, and The North Pacific Ocean. Sir Henry Rawlinson commented that these works had become standard authorities; he also executed a series of charts widely used by the mercantile marine. The Society of Arts awarded Findlay its medal for his dissertation on The English Lighthouse System. Subsequently he published Lighthouses and Coast Fog Signals of the World.
He also wrote a paper on the connection of Lake Tanganyika with the Nile, accompanying it by a comparative series of maps relating to the northern end of the lake. Findlay served on various committees appointed by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and contributed the following papers to section E: at Liverpool in 1853, On the Currents of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; Exeter, 1869, On the Gulf Stream, and its supposed influence upon the Climate of N.-W. Europe.
Findlay\\\'s publications came to 10,000 pages. He contributed several papers to the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, the Transactions of the Royal United Service Institution, and the Transactions of the Society of Arts. At the time of Sir John Franklin\\\'s loss he sifted all the possible routes; and as a member of the Arctic committee of the Royal Geographical Society worked on the arguments which induced the government to send out the Alert and Discovery expedition of 1875. Findlay devoted much time to the labours of his friend David Livingstone, in central Africa, and he also investigated the sources of the Nile. For the record of the Burton and Speke explorations during 1858-9 he constructed a map of the routes traversed. In 1870 the Società Geografica Italiana elected him one of its foreign honorary members.
Please note all items auctioned are genuine, we do not sell reproductions. A Certificate of Authenticity (COA) can be issued on request.
What is an Antique Map
The word Antique in the traditional sense refers to an item that is more than a hundred years old. In the past maps were sold in two forms, as a single sheet (broadsheet) or bound in an atlas or book. The majority of antique maps for sale today come from books or atlases and have survived due to the protection offered by the hardback covers.
When considering a purchaseThe first thing to determine when staring a collection or purchasing an item, is what is important to you. Most collectors prefer to build their collections around a theme. You may decide to collect maps from one region or country, charting its development through time. Similarly you could collect maps of one particular period in time, by type (i.e. sea or celestial charts) or by cartographer. The collector might also want to consider the theme of cartographical misconceptions such as California as an island or Australia as Terra Australis or the Great Southern Land.
The subject is so wide that any would-be-collector has almost endless possibilities to find his own little niche within the field, and thereby build a rewarding collection.
Pricing is based on a number of different factors, the most important of which is regional. In any series of maps the most valuable are usually the World Map and the America/North America. The World because it is usually the most decorative and America because it has the strongest regional market. Other factors that come into play re: price is rarity, age, size, historical importance, decorative value (colour) and overall condition and quality of paper it is printed on.
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