Finland Postal Map 1799 Von Reilly Postal Atlas Print - Finland, Norrland, Postal Routes, Vienna

This rare postal map of Finland and Norrland was drawn by Franz Johann Joseph von Reilly and appeared in Von Reilly and Kuhn's Atlas Universae rei veredariae bilinguis, also titled Allgemeiner Postatlas von der ganzen Welt, published in Vienna in 1799. The sheet bears a Latin and German title, Postkarte von Finnland und Norrland, in keeping with the bilingual character of the atlas. Its subject is the network of mail routes that crossed the northern kingdoms at the end of the eighteenth century, so it records how letters and travelers moved across Finland and the adjoining Swedish and Norwegian lands. It is a scarce sheet that appeals to collectors of postal history as much as to collectors of maps, and it makes an unusual and intelligent piece for a study or hallway.

Von Reilly and Kuhn's atlas is the first postal atlas of Europe. It consists of 40 maps, systematically depicted, with all of the postal routes in Europe set out in remarkable detail for the eighteenth century. While this map presents minimal topographical features, the atlas is of great importance, because it treats communication rather than terrain as its subject. A postal map of this kind shows the stations and the lines of travel that joined them, and it is an unusual find among maps of Scandinavia, most of which stress coasts, borders and decoration instead.

A collector of postal history, a family with roots in Finland, or a lover of unusual atlases will find a distinctive gift here. TheMapVault's Blaeu sheet of Finland from 1664 gives the country in all its baroque ornament, whereas this Vienna postal map shows the roads of the mail coaches. 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 or a library.