First Edition Colton's Australia antique map c1855.

by Colton, Joseph Hutchins

Map of Australia with Queensland in North Australia. J.H. Colton c1855. First edition state of this map with finely engraved decorative border and contemporary colour-printing of states – with Brisbane shown south of the border in New South Wales, prior to the Moreton Bay colony becoming the state of Queensland in 1859, with Brisbane as its capital city.

Original steel-engraved map with decorative engraved border and contemporary hand-colour to the states of Australia, engraved according to the Act of Congress in the Year 1855 by Joseph Hutchins Colton in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York for Colton's Atlas of the World published at J.H. Colton & Co., No. 172 William St. New York, in 1855.

Joseph Hutchins Colton began publishing maps in the 1830s, after purchasing the map plates of David H. Burr. In the early 1850s Joseph’s sons George Woolworth Colton and Charles B. Colton headed the family firm. The decorative borders around each map became a signature of Colton presentation and assisted in establishing the Colton firm as the pre-eminent American cartographers of the day. In 1859 Colton sold their map plates to A.J. Johnson who, with a series of partners, continued to produce maps in the Colton Style until 1885.

This map is in very good condition except for slight tear at right extremity, which has archival tape repair to back. (The scan is not the actual map & there is no foxing spot at top left.) Page size: 370 x 447mm (14 5/8 x 19 1/2 inches). To outside of border measures 33 X 45cm (13 x 16 inches).