Reuss & Browne’s Map and Part …

Very rare and important large scale map showing occupied land, counties, reserves, postal districts, roads and railways. Also recorded is the recent separation of Queensland from New South Wales. Queensland had only been proclaimed a colony on 10 December 1859. The map is also of historic significance as it was printed by the Austrian born pioneering printer and important colonial photographer, John Degotardi (1823-1882). The dating of the map is determined by the fact that Reuss &amp Browne were only together at 134 Pitt St in 1860. Degotardi arrived in Sydney in the Panthea in 1852 and worked briefly for the Sydney Morning Herald and then set up in business as an engraver and printer in premises at 20 York Street. Degotardi had always been interested in photography, but its appeal was quickened by the introduction of the wet-plate process and the invention of photo-lithography by John Osborne of Melbourne in August 1859. In 1861 he privately printed a twenty-four page pamphlet, ‘The Art of Printing in its Various Branches’, the first publication on this topic to be issued in Australia it includes examples of various methods of printing. From 1861 Reuss is recorded in the 1861 Sands Directory without Brown.