France Map 1851 Decorative Vignette Print - Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Nantes, Lille

John Tallis of London published this France in 1851 as a decorative map from one of the great nineteenth-century illustrated atlases, and the catalog describes this example as a striking full-color copy. Tallis, who lived from 1817 to 1876, began his London career with remarkable street views before issuing the Illustrated World Atlas for the Great Exhibition of 1851, one of the last series of decorative world maps ever produced. The maps were engraved by John Rapkin, and the surrounding vignettes show the Bridge of Toulouse, the Palace of Fontainebleau, the Garden of the Palais Royale, the Harbor at Calais and two sets of costumes, with Corsica included on the sheet. It dates from 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition in London and of Louis-Napoléon's coup in Paris.

The Garden of the Palais Royale is the Paris vignette, and it recalls the arcaded garden beside the old royal palace in the heart of the capital, where the city's cafes and shops gathered. Next to it the Palace of Fontainebleau represents the royal châteaux of the Île-de-France, and the Harbor at Calais and the Bridge of Toulouse mark the north coast and the southwest. The two sets of costumes show the dress of different regions, a reminder that provincial identities survived the departments created in 1790. Corsica appears on the sheet beside the mainland, and the sheet ends up as a picture album of France with a map in the middle. Paris, the Seine and the Garden together make this the most Parisian of the Tallis vignette sets.

A Parisian, a visitor who has strolled the arcades of the Palais Royal, or a collector of Victorian decorative maps will find a handsome gift here, and the strong color suits a study or a hall. TheMapVault lists the Tallis France of 1851 in more than one copy, and this one is the full-color example, chosen for the Palais Royale garden at the heart of its vignettes, while Cram's 1883 map and the Stanford sheets of 1865 and 1872 have no vignettes of any kind. Tallis made it as a showpiece for the year of the Great Exhibition. 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.