Engraved map, hand-colored. 73.5x92 cm (29x36¼") plus decorative grape-vine border which contains 12 views, overall (sheet size) 87x105 cm (34¼x41¼"). Folding into original gilt-lettered embossed morocco folder, 16x10.5 cm (6¼x4¼"), with Colton advertisement on the front pastedown.
Later issue of Colton's important map, demonstrating the advancement in geographic knowledge and the many changes in political boundaries over the decade since it was first issued. The state and territorial boundaries in the west are still in flux, with Washington occupying present Idaho, abutting a massive Nebraska to the east; Nevada is separated from Utah by color, but not named; both rest upon a broad New Mexico, to the south of which is Arizona; Colorado and Wyoming are yet to be delineated. An attractive map, with delicately engraved border vignettes including the Capitol (correctly spelled in this later issue) Building in Washington, the Washington Monument, Mexicans Catching Wild Cattle, Willamette Falls in Oregon, Astoria in Oregon, etc. Sailing ships abound in the oceans, and there is an inset of the Atlantic Ocean, and a smaller one of the Isthmus of Panama.
Further Notes from the Files of Warren Heckrotte
Provenance: Heaston, 2/91
I know of the following states : 1) 1848. 2) 1849. 3) 1849, W-GR 74. 4) 1850, W-GR 145. 5) 1851, W-GR 188. 6) 1852, Rumsey. 7)1853, Sotheby's 10/31/88. 8) (next in order or last?) 1859, W-TW 970. I have 2, 3, and 8. LC has the 1848 state. Phil Print Shop, Cat 2/01, 10/01, has the 1848 state as wall map. Burkwood Books, Cat 56, 10/97, has a map with same title, but smaller in dimensions, 28"x 36", with 3" pictorial and floral border, dated 1856 (price 350 and sold), folded in morocco folder. Rumsey has map with same title, smaller in dimensions but slightly larger than preceeding, dated 1861, and probably different map.
References: W-GR 74, 2nd 1849 state. Streeter 3873. Ristow, Maps for an Emerging Nation, p 23, and #54 for 1st edition, 1848.