Old Map of Glasgow in 1851 by Tallis & Rapkin - River Clyde, Argyle Street, University, Alternate Colouring Edition

This map of Glasgow was produced by John Tallis and engraved by John Rapkin, published in 1851 as part of Tallis's Illustrated Atlas, a series celebrated for combining detailed city plans with decorative pictorial borders showing notable local buildings and views. Glasgow was, by the middle of the 19th century, one of the great industrial cities of the British Empire, and this plan captures it at the height of that Victorian expansion, mapping its streets, docks and public buildings with the fine engraving typical of the Tallis workshop. This print is offered in an alternate hand-colouring to our other edition of the same 1851 plate, giving a genuinely different palette while preserving all of the original engraved detail.

Argyle Street runs through the map as Glasgow's principal shopping thoroughfare, already established as the commercial heart of the city by 1851. The Royal Exchange appears as one of the city's grandest public buildings, a symbol of Glasgow's mercantile wealth, while the University, still located on its original High Street site decades before its move to Gilmorehill in the 1870s, is recorded near the historic heart of the city. The River Clyde winds through the sheet as the artery of Glasgow's shipbuilding and trading economy, and the Necropolis, the grand Victorian cemetery opened in 1833 on a hill overlooking the cathedral, appears as one of the city's most distinctive landmarks.

This alternate-colouring edition suits a collector who already owns our other Tallis and Rapkin Glasgow print and wants a genuinely different reading of the same 1851 plate, or anyone who simply prefers this particular palette. It also makes a fitting gift for anyone with Glasgow roots or a love of the city's Victorian industrial heyday. It is available unframed in a full range of sizes, from a modest print for a hallway to a larger piece for an office or sitting room.