LARGE COLOR LITHOGRAPHED MAP OF KASHMIR, 1859

(KASHMIR) MONTGOMERIE, T.G. Map of Kashmir, with Part of Adjacent Mountains. Calcutta: Survey of India Office, 1859. Octavo, contemporary brown cloth portfolio, marbled endpapers; map sectioned and backed on linen, unfolds to 53 by 50 inches. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $3000.

First edition of this very large and finely detailed hand-colored folding map of Kashmir, a rare early map made during the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, measuring more than four feet by four feet and scaled one-half inch to a mile, sectioned and backed on linen.

Thomas George Montgomerie (1830-78) was a British explorer who was among the first to survey the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges. He is also credited as having suggested the scheme of sending native Indian surveyors called “Pundits” into the then forbidden Tibetan area. The work of triangulation using plane tables, heliotropes and theodolites in this mountainous, snowy region was arduous, and took a large team of surveyors several years. “By the end of 1858, the half-inch survey of the whole of the Kashmir valley had been completed, and the fair map, largely the work of W.H. Scott and the draughtsmen at Dehra, was dispatched to Calcutta at the end of May, 1859 and won enthusiastic praise in Calcutta and also in London where it was sent for publication” (Col. R.H. Phillimore, “Survey of Kashmir 1855 to 1865,” in Himalayan Journal, Number 22, 1959-60). With inset Kashmir Route Map, at a scale of 32 miles to the inch.

Lower right quarter of map a bit toned. A few minor repairs to linen backing and to cloth portfolio. A very good copy of this scarce and very large map.