The maps from The Illustrated Atlas were first published in serial form to a target audience that led insular lives due to the expense and hardship of travel. All that changed as the progress of the nineteenth century brought swift and dramatic changes in public awareness of far away places. Tallis' maps no doubt played an important role in this dramatic awakening. These maps not only provided up-to-date geographical knowledge, but also used vignette views within the map's design to show the native people and their occupations, cities and points of interest. The maps hark back to a cartographic tradition from the Dutch mapmakers of the seventeenth century with finely engraved decorative borders. The maps were drawn and engraved by John Rapkin with views drawn and engraved by a number of prominent artists. The maps were issued as a complete volume from 1851 until about 1865. Some of the maps were also published in other history books published by Tallis including British Colonies and, without the vignettes, in geographical dictionaries and encyclopedias until about 1880.

A. Northern Africa. This lovely steel engraved map features a decorative border and vignettes of Mogador (now called Essaouira), Morocco, Constantine, Algiers, and Tunis. Many caravan routes are shown in the Sahara Desert, north of which is noted as Country abounding in Dates. The maritime states of Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco comprise the region known during this period as the Barbary Coast. The illustrations were drawn by H. Winkles and engraved by G. Greatbach; the map was drawn and engraved by J. Rapkin.
B. Western Africa, (13.4 x 9.8"). This decorative map extending from Senegal to the Bight of Biafra is filled with detail and surrounded in a delicate border. Finely engraved vignettes include Fort Christiansborg, Cape Coast Castle, Sierra Leone, and Bakel. These vignettes were drawn by H. Winkles and engraved by E. Radclyffe; the map was drawn and engraved by J. Rapkin.

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Condition: B+

Nice impressions with original color. There are light stains in the borders of each map from non-archival tape that had previously been on the verso of each map but has since been removed. The map of Western Africa also has minor toning along the centerfold, a small chip at bottom left, and short centerfold separations at top and bottom that have been closed on verso with archival tape.