A New and Accurate Map of the Southern Provinces of Hindoostan, showing The Territories ceded by Tippoo Saib to the Different Powers

January 1, 1794

Original hand-coloured copper engraving on paper

Print size: 11 x 9 in (28 x 23 cm)
Sheet size: 13.5 x 10.75 in (34 x 27 cm)

Wilkinson’s Map of South India in the Aftermath of the Third Anglo–Mysore War, 1794

This lot brings together important late-eighteenth-century maps by Robert Wilkinson, each reflecting a critical moment in the transition of political authority in South India. A New and Accurate Map of the Southern Provinces of Hindoostan, spans the region from Mumbai to Cape Comorin and offers a remarkably clear delineation of territorial boundaries at the time of Tipu Sultan’s defeat. The map differentiates the possessions of the British, the Carnatic, the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Maratha Confederacy, and Tipu Sultan, providing a rare contemporaneous cartographic record of a region undergoing dramatic reorganisation following the Treaty of Seringapatam (1792). The inclusion of a tabulated summary of British possessions in the lower left corner gives the map additional administrative value, reflecting the Company’s growing bureaucratic interest in territorial management.

The general map of India that accompanies it derives from plates originally belonging to the Bowles family, whose substantial map library Wilkinson acquired in 1779. His reworking of these inherited plates became the basis of major publishing ventures, most notably the General Atlas of the World, first issued in 1794 and subsequently revised. Wilkinson’s revisions modernised the Bowles material, aligning earlier cartography with the political realities of the 1790s and the expanding British presence in the subcontinent. The paired maps therefore offer complementary perspectives: one situates South India within the wider geography of the subcontinent, and the other presents a close analysis of territorial divisions at a decisive political juncture.

Together, this map exemplifies Wilkinson’s role as a transitional figure in British cartography, bridging mid-eighteenth-century engraving traditions and the more empirically grounded mapping practices of the nineteenth century. Their value lies not only in their geographical detail but also in their documentation of a historically pivotal period in which the balance of power in India shifted decisively in favour of the British.

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