Calcutta

Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (S.D.U.K), Calcutta, London: Baldwin & Cradock, 1832 [dated lower left]
Print size: 13 x 15.75 in (33 x 40 cm)
Sheet size: 14.25 x 17.25 in (36 x 44 cm)

A very finely steel-engraved plan of Calcutta (modern-day Kolkata) drawn and engraved by B R Davies after surveys and plans supplied to the SDUK incorporating significant detail of street and place names. It includes a reference key to public buildings, churches and chapels, and there are three engraved views of Writers Buildings, Government House and Esplanade Row at the bottom of the sheet.

An exceptionally detailed and historically important engraved plan of early nineteenth-century Calcutta, published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK), one of the most ambitious cartographic undertakings of its time. The plan depicts the colonial capital of British India in remarkable precision — from Fort William and the Maidan to the densely built quarters of Burrabazar, Chowringhee, and the riverine ghats along the Hooghly. Each major public building, institution, and church is meticulously keyed to an alphabetical reference table printed below the map.

The lower margin features three fine vignettes capturing Calcutta’s architectural and civic grandeur: Writers’ Buildings— the administrative nerve of the East India Company; Government House — the Governor-General’s neo-Palladian residence modelled after Kedleston Hall; and Esplanade Row, the elegant façade overlooking the Maidan and the Hooghly, lined with European mercantile houses and shipping activity.

This plan formed part of the SDUK’s celebrated Atlas of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, issued between 1829 and 1844, and is among the most sought-after early printed city plans of Calcutta for its accuracy, clarity, and artistic refinement.

"The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK) was founded in London in 1826, mainly at the instigation of Whig MP Henry Brougham, with the object of publishing information to people who were unable to obtain formal teaching or who preferred self-education. It was a largely Whig organisation and published inexpensive texts intended to adapt scientific and similarly high-minded material for the rapidly expanding reading public over twenty years until it was disbanded in 1846." (Source: Wikipedia)

NON-EXPORTABLE

This work will be shipped unframed