PBA Galleries

Woodcut map with light hand-coloring; with inset at right showing lower stretch of Frasers River.11.3x18.3 cm (4½x7¼") plus wide margins and decorative border, on sheet of laid paper 20.4x27 cm (8x10½").

A curious map of uncertain origin. It is thought to be half of a pictorial lettersheet, though it is not in Baird, and it is on thicker laid paper than one usually sees in lettersheets (though it could possibly have been cleaned and sizing added to the paper to stiffen it). There is an example of this map, in different format, used in the pictorial lettersheet listed as no. 200 in Baird. Two examples of the map are listed in OCLC/WorldCat, both at the British Library (possibly duplicate listings of the same item), with no size given and no indication that it was part of a lettersheet, and dated 1870. However, by 1870 the firm of Hutchings and Rosenfield had been out of business for nearly ten years. Regardless of these uncertainties, the map is undoubtedly rare.

Provenance: Ken Saunders, 2/93