Spain & Portugal Map 1851 Illustrated Vignette Atlas Print - Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia

John Tallis of London published this Spain and Portugal in 1851, a full-color map engraved for R. Montgomery Martin's Illustrated Atlas. The Rare Maps catalog calls it a striking example of Tallis's marvelous map, showing the Iberian Peninsula with a number of cities, towns, rivers and other geographical features, with the regions delimited and named, among them Catalonia, Valencia, Castile and Aragon. It carries decorative vignettes of bullfighting, Belem Castle, Gibraltar, two coats of arms, and the cities of Madrid and Lisbon. Tallis was one of the last great decorative map makers, and his maps are prized for such vignettes of local scenes, which turn a geographical sheet into a small picture of national character.

The same Tallis atlas was published for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, and its maps were engraved by John Rapkin. In 1851 Isabella II reigned in Spain, with Madrid as the capital, while Portugal was ruled by Queen Maria II, and in Lisbon the Belem Castle stood by the Tagus as the old monument of the age of discovery. Gibraltar, which Britain had held since 1713, has its own vignette, and the bullfight stands for Spanish popular culture. The regions that the map names are the old kingdoms and provinces from which modern Spain was assembled.

A lover of decorative vignette maps, a family with roots in Castile, Catalonia or Valencia, or a traveler with a taste for Spanish and Portuguese scenes will find a lively gift here. TheMapVault lists the same Tallis series for France and its Mitchell sheet of 1846 shows Spain without any vignettes, whereas this Tallis sheet of 1851 carries bullfighting, Belem Castle and Gibraltar around the peninsula. 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.