Schwarze Meer, Kustenlander

Engraved map. Boundaries boundaries hand col. Relief shown by hachures. Meyer's Handatlas No. 85. Prime meridian: Ferro. // This is Meyer's grandest production, a real tour de force that has fifty maps of the Americas including thirty three maps that are derived from the Tanner/Mitchell Universal atlas maps of the various U.S. States and Territories, Canada, and South America and are dated from 1844 to 1854 (with most dated 1844 or 1845). Many of the maps in this atlas have Philadelphia as a place of publication (along with several other cities) indicating that there may have been an arrangement with Tanner and/or Mitchell to copy the maps. The U.S. maps dated 1844-46 all appear to derive from a late 1830s edition of Tanner's Universal atlas. Those dated from 1850-54 derive from the Mitchell and Thomas Cowperthwait issues of the Universal atlas from 1850-54. Espenhorst lists a separate atlas (3.3.3) published in 1860 with these U.S. maps only, titled Grosse und vollstandiger Auswanderungs-Atlas fur Nordamerika. The Iowa, Wisconsin, and Texas maps are not copied from the Universal atlas, but all the others are almost exact copies and it is strange that no credit is given to Tanner or Mitchell. Notwithstanding that, the copies are beautifully done and in some cases (the California map adds an inset of San Francisco Bay not on the Mitchell version) superior to the American originals. Wheat misses the Tanner/Mitchell derivation in the two maps he cites. The other maps in the atlas are all superbly engraved and the city maps have exquisite views -- all combining to make this the finest German atlas of the mid 19th century. Full and outline hand coloring. Maps are bound in half leather marbled boards with Meyer's Grosser Hand-Atlas aller Theile der Erde. stamped on the spine in gilt. Scarce.