General Map of the Middle Island, New Zealand.

This rare map of New Zealand’s south island is from the Picturesque Atlas of Australasian which was the most ambitious publishing venture in Australian history up to the 1900’s. It was conceived and financed by American publishers under the name of the Picturesque Atlas Publishing Co Limited, Sydney and Melbourne. It’s ambitious aims of using the best artists, the best paper, the finest printing engraving techniques and for it to be the most comprehensive survey of Australia’s colonial history ensured that it inevitably was doomed to be a financial failure. The legacy that it left on the other hand was some of the finest engravings and maps printed in Australia in the C19th. Large scale map of the south island with excellent detail. Inset of Chatham Islands, railway lines noted and counties shown.