Bowles’s New and Accurate Map of Asia, with its Islands and Dependencies; Comprehending also the Russian and Turkish Dominions in Europe, from the best Authorities; the British Territory and Settlements in the East Indies
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Bowles’s New and Accurate Map of Asia, with its Islands and Dependencies; Comprehending also the Russian and Turkish Dominions in Europe, from the best Authorities; the British Territory and Settlements in the East Indies, Corrected from Actual Surveys, lately made by The Company’s Engineers; and a Variety of New Discoveries in the Maritime Parts, by Cook, Bougainville and others; the whole divided into its Empires, Kingdoms, States, &c., according to the most Celebrated modern Geographers
[Circa 1791]
Engraved map with original hand-coloured outline
Dissected into 48 panels and linen-backed, folding to pocket format. When closed, approx. 8.5 x 5.25 in (21.5 x 13.5 cm) and when unfolded to form 42 x 48.25 in (106.5 x 122.5 cm)
Published at London: Printed for the Proprietor Carington Bowles, No. 69 in St. Paul’s Church Yard
A Rare Separately Issued Folding Edition of Bowles's Map of Asia, with an Elaborate Allegorical Cartouche, ca. 1791
A scarce and highly decorative folding map of Asia published by Carington Bowles, featuring a richly engraved allegorical cartouche absent from later atlas editions. This separately issued edition, likely printed circa 1791, predates the simplified state published by Bowles & Carver in Bowles’s Universal Atlas (1794). The title is enclosed within an elaborate oval cartouche surmounted by a lion and surrounded by allegorical female figures, a classical warrior, and symbols of navigation and geography. The format—dissected into 48 panels and linen-mounted for portability—suggests this was a deluxe pocket issue, designed for private study or use by merchants and travellers.
The cartographic content incorporates late-18th-century European discoveries, including Cook’s voyages, and draws from Company surveys in the East Indies. The map reflects the commercial and colonial gaze of British imperial cartography, dividing Asia into its major polities and emphasising maritime routes. Surviving copies of this state are exceedingly rare: no institutional holdings with this illustrated cartouche could be identified, and all digitised exemplars feature a later plain title panel. This example represents a significant bibliographic and historical variant, preserved in complete and stable condition.
The Bowles Family (fl. c. 1714 - 1832) were publishers and map sellers active in London from c. 1714 to c. 1832. The firm, under Thomas Bowles (fl. 1714 - 1763), John Bowles (1701 - 1779), Carrington Bowles (1724 - 1793), and as Bowles and Carver (fl. 1794 - 1832), produced a massive corpus of work that included numerous atlases, pocket maps, and wall maps.
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