Belgium Map 1832 Dower Descriptive Atlas Print - Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Belgian Provinces

This map of Belgium was drawn by John Dower for A General Descriptive Atlas of the Earth, with commentary by W. M. Higgins, and published in 1832 by W. S. Orr and Company of London and by W. and R. Chambers of Edinburgh. The sheet measures about 27 by 22 centimeters at a scale of 1:1,280,000 and is an engraved map printed with the firms of Russell, Bradbury and Evans, and Orr and Smith. The atlas holds 51 maps, each with a short account of the country, its geographical features, chief towns, population and general statistics. The title Belgium sits in the lower left corner, and a scale in English statute miles and a meridian marked as longitude east from Greenwich complete the sheet.

Pastel colors set the provinces of the country apart, and delicate line work shows the rivers and mountain ranges. The map shows Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent along with smaller towns and regions. It was made in the early 1830s, soon after the Belgian Revolution of 1830, which led to the independence of Belgium from the Netherlands, so it records the political and administrative divisions of a very young state. The catalog describes the atlas as an unrecorded Dower atlas with commentary by Higgins, and it notes that twelve of its maps later appeared in lithographic form in Dower's Short Atlas for Schools.

A collector of English atlas maps, a family with roots in Brussels, Antwerp or Ghent, or a reader of nineteenth-century European history will find a thoughtful gift here. TheMapVault's Dower sheet of Holland, dated the same year, shows the northern neighbor, whereas this sheet covers Belgium alone in the first years of its independence. 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.