The Curious Map Book - Hardcover

Ashley Baynton-Williams

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0712356193 ISBN 13: 9780712356190

Publisher: The British Library Publishing Division, 2015

Synopsis

Mapmaking has always been a serious business, whether surveying property limits, marking international boundaries or plotting lines of travel. Yet cartographers of all periods had a sense of humour, and mapmakers often used their artistic talents to create maps not for strictly geographical purposes but for the pleasure and entertainment of others. In this book, an expert cartographic researcher uncovers 100 curious, entertaining maps, drawn mainly from the unrivalled map collection in the British Library. Many of the maps depict countries in human or animal form, among them the famous 'Leo Belgicus' - the Low Countries in the shape of a lion. Many of the maps featured here were created for recreational play, with the secondary purpose of educating through enjoyment, including some of the very earliest cartographical game-maps, jigsaws, playing-card maps and even a jigsaw globe.With advances in printing techniques, publishers found they could affix maps to all manner of objects, often commemorative, such as the tankard celebrating Nelson's victory at Trafalgar in 1805. There are also maps on cups and saucers, tea towels, umbrellas, scarves and commemorative medals. Through images of these maps and many more, this amusing and unusual book reveals the little-known playful side of mapmaking.

About this title

Review:

Takes a quirkier approach to cartographical history ... a fascinating volume. --New York Times Book Review

By virtue of Bayton-Williams's selections, the clarity of his descriptions, and the quality of the reproductions, this book is well suited to introduce the joys of old maps to a popular audience. And it also offers some useful material for experienced scholars, students and collectors. --Imago Mundi

A tour de force... decidedly different... Ashley Baynton-Williams is to be congratulated on this impressive work ... which has been impeccably researched and very well written. All I can say is 'go out and buy a copy as soon as you can'. It is both fun, educative and worth every penny. --International Map Collectors' Society Journal

About the Author:

Ashley Baynton-Williams is a map-dealer and researcher, based in London. He has written a number of books about maps including British Map Engravers: A Dictionary of Engravers, Lithographers and their Principal Employers to 1850 (2011, with Laurence Worms), and, with Miles Baynton-Williams, New Worlds: Maps from the Age of Discovery (2006), Maps of War (2007) and Maps of North America (2008).

About this edition

• Publisher: The British Library Publishing Division
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0712356193
• ISBN 13: 9780712356190
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240