Sweden & Norway Map 1855 Tallis Skate Runners & Stockholm Vignettes Print - Stockholm, Dannemora, Uppsala, Laplanders

This gorgeous full-color map of Sweden and Norway was published in London by John Tallis in 1855 and engraved for R. Montgomery Martin's Illustrated Atlas. It is surrounded by decorative vignettes that show Stockholm, Norwegian Laplanders, the iron mines at Dannemora near Uppsala, Norwegian peasantry, Norwegian skielobere or skate runners, and the peasants of Sweden. The catalog notes that the vignette showing skiing is of particular significance, since it is an early printed view of the sport, and it gives the sheet a special interest for collectors of sports history as well as of maps. The sheet is one of the most appealing maps in the Tallis atlas, and its scenes of work, travel and sport make it a lively picture of the north.

Tallis was one of the last great decorative map makers, and his maps are prized for the wonderful vignettes of indigenous scenes and people. John Tallis lived from 1817 to 1876, came to London in the 1840s from the Midlands, and began with a series of London street views. For the Great Exhibition of 1851 he published the Illustrated World Atlas, one of the last series of decorative world maps ever produced, with maps engraved by John Rapkin and later reissued by the London Printing and Publishing Company. In 1858 he began the Illustrated News of the World.

A collector of decorative maps, a skier or family with roots in Sweden or Norway, or a lover of Victorian vignettes will find a lively gift here. TheMapVault's Colton map of the two kingdoms is plain and orderly, whereas this Tallis sheet is full of people at work and play. A second copy of this same 1855 sheet is also in the collection, so you can choose the example whose crops you prefer. Like every print in the collection, it ships unframed and is available in a full range of sizes, from a compact desk piece to a large-format statement print. It would suit a study, a hall or a library.