1835 Hall Map of Central Germany : Saxony, Hesse, Nassau

This is a beautiful map of central Germany from Sidney Hall's extremely scarce 1835 New General Atlas. It covers central Germany from Hesse Cassel south as far as Manheim and from Coblentz to Zittau, depicting the semi-autonomous kingdoms, duchies, and Prussian territories in southern Germany. These include Saxony, Hesse, and Nassau. Towns, rivers, mountains, railroads, and various other important topographical details are noted. Elevation throughout is rendered by hachure and political and territorial boundaries are outlined in color. A list of abbreviations is included near the bottom border of the map. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 created The German Confederation to coordinate the economies of these separate but culturally related German-speaking countries. The Kingdom of Saxony also joined this Confederation. The Confederation acted as a buffer zone between Austria and Prussia, the two largest and most powerful member states. It briefly dissolved during the Revolution of 1948, but was re-established in 1850. Nonetheless the rivalry between the two powerful states increased until it finally broke out into the Austro-Prussian War. Prussia won the Austro-Prussian War in 1866 which ultimately led to the collapse of the German Confederation. A few years later, in 1871, most of the former Confederation states were folded into the newly proclaimed German Empire.

Sidney Hall's New General Atlas was published from 1830 to 1857, the first edition being the most common, with all subsequent editions appearing only rarely. Most of the maps included in the first edition of this atlas were drawn between 1827 and 1828 and are most likely steel plate engravings, making it among the first cartographic work to employ this technique. Each of the maps in this large and impressive atlas feature elegant engraving and an elaborate keyboard style border. Though this is hardly the first map to employ this type of border, it is possibly the earliest to use it on such a large scale. Both the choice to use steel plate engraving and the addition of the attractive keyboard boarder are evolutions of anti-forgery efforts. Copper plates, which were commonly used for printing bank notes in the early 19th century, proved largely unsuitable due to their overall fragility and the ease with which they could be duplicated. In 1819 the Bank of England introduced a £20,000 prize for anyone who could devise a means to print unforgeable notes. The American inventors Jacob Perkins and Asa Spencer responded to the call. Perkins discovered a process for economically softening and engraving steel plates while Spencer invented an engraving lathe capable of producing complex patters repetitively - such as this keyboard border. Though Perkins and Spenser did not win the prize, their steel plate engraving technique was quickly adopted by map publishers in England, who immediately recognized its value. Among early steel plate cartographic productions, this atlas, published in 1830 by Longman Rees, Orme, Brown & Green stands out as perhaps the finest. This map was issued by Sidney Hall and published by Longman Rees, Orme, Brown & Green of Paternoster Row, London, in the 1835 edition of the Sidney Hall New General Atlas.