Art

Very fine example of this rare and impressive Great Game map in its sixth and most important iteration, its four discrete sections, when combined, covering an enormous area of Central Asia extending from the head of the Arabian Gulf, in the southwest, up to Lake Balkhash, in the northeast, and from Astrakhan on the Caspian, in the northwest, all the way down to Delhi in the southeast. In between it includes all of modern Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, as well as large portions of Kazakhstan, Iran, Pakistan, northern India and western China. The map appeared in six progressively updated editions between 1872 and 1883, all printed at the Office of the Trigonometrical Branch, Survey of India, at Dehra Dún (an edition of 1885 issued by the US Army Office of the Chief of Engineers was based on the edition of 1875). Library Hub cites copies at Oxford and London Library only among British and Irish institutional libraries and WorldCat adds just Bibliotheque Nationale de France. These were the climactic years of the Great Game and this map played an important part in the work of the Afghan Boundary Commission (1885-88), which saw Britain and Russia co-operating to establish the northern border of Afghanistan. Turkestan itself had been the cockpit of a major Russian offensive in 1881 led by the flamboyant General Skobelev, described by Peter Hopkirk in his classic study The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia (1990) as "The Last Stand of Very fine example of this rare and impressive Great Game map in its sixth and most important iteration, its four discrete sections, when combined, covering an enormous area of Central Asia extending from the head of the Arabian Gulf, in the southwest, up to Lake Balkhash, in the northeast, and from Astrakhan on the Caspian, in the northwest, all the way down to Delhi in the southeast. In between it includes all of modern Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, as well as large portions of Kazakhstan, Iran, Pakistan, northern India and western China. The map appeared in six progressively updated editions between 1872 and 1883, all printed at the Office of the Trigonometrical Branch, Survey of India, at Dehra Dún (an edition of 1885 issued by the US Army Office of the Chief of Engineers was based on the edition of 1875). Library Hub cites copies at Oxford and London Library only among British and Irish institutional libraries and WorldCat adds just Bibliotheque Nationale de France. These were the climactic years of the Great Game and this map played an important part in the work of the Afghan Boundary Commission (1885-88), which saw Britain and Russia co-operating to establish the northern border of Afghanistan. Turkestan itself had been the cockpit of a major Russian offensive in 1881 led by the flamboyant General Skobelev, described by Peter Hopkirk in his classic study The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia (1990) as "The Last Stand of the Turcomans". The map was composed under the direction of Lieutenant-General James Thomas Walker (1826-1896), the distinguished Surveyor General of India 1878-83, and drew on general maps of the Survey of India and Russian maps from the 1870s and 80s, supported by the latest British cartographic surveys including the "Sketch map of the Hazarajat" by Lieutenant-Colonel E. P. Leach VC of the Royal Engineers, covering the central highlands of Afghanistan (1882). "Walker's work as superintendent of the great trigonometrical survey was as much that of a geographer as of a geodesist. At his office at Dehra Dún explorers were trained, survey parties for military expeditions organized, and Indian surveyors dispatched to make discoveries, while their observations were reduced and combined. Many valuable maps were published, and Walker's map of Turkestan, compiled using information from his Russian colleagues, went through many editions" (ODNB). In his fascinating study The Pundits: British Exploration of Tibet and Central Asia (1990), Derek Waller writes: "Walker had always believed in the swapping of geographical data with the Russians. If they could provide good maps of their frontier areas adjacent to British interests, then he was happy to have them, and to provide his data in return". This is by far the era's finest map of the region, presented here in exceptionally attractive condition. READ MORE 4 photozincograph maps with original outline hand colour, on unconnected, untrimmed sheets, each dissected into 8 sections and mounted upon original linen, each 610 x 960 mm (when combined forming a map approx. 1080 x 1830 mm), folding into original grey sand-grain cloth case gilt-lettered "Turkestan" and carrying seller's blind-stamp of Thacker & Spink, Calcutta. Map in excellent condition, extraordinarily clean and crisp; spine of case sunned, a few old marks and stains.