Beschreibung:

Map of the City of New York Extending Northward to Fiftieth Street . Surveyed and drawn by John F. Harrison.
New York: Dripps, 1851. Massive hand-colored, six-sheet engraved wall map (88 ¼ x 48 ¾ inches, 2240x1240 mm). The map within an ornamental border with vignettes of city buildings. Condition: Losses to the top border and extending approximately 7 inches into the map infilled, very minor dampstaining at the bottom corners, linen-backed at a contemporary date, re-edged in green cloth, lacks the original wooden rollers. With lovely period coloring and a warm patina. rare first edition of a massive wall map of new york city, the first to identify every street and building plot. This important map contains a wealth of information about the city and is considered a precursor to the fire insurance maps issued later in the 19th century. “Dripps was an unlikely man to stand at the beginning of such an important phase of New York mapping. An immigrant grocer with no training in geography, he established his map business one year after disembarking in America from Ireland…[This] was Dripp's first significant map” ( Augustyn & Cohen ). Dripps would reissue the map the following year. The map is difficult to find in any condition. Although with faults at the top of the map (thankfully in a barely populated area), the map has period handcoloring and has aged with a beautiful patina rarely found on varnished wall maps. Augustyn & Cohen, Manhattan in Maps , pp 124-125; Stokes, Iconography of Manhattan Island 3:138; Rumsey 2620 (1852 edition).