{"product_id":"old-map-of-tasmania-australia-by-arrowsmith-1844-hobart-launceston-devonport-burnie-vdl-co-grants","title":"Old Map of Tasmania by Arrowsmith, 1844: Van Diemen's Land, Hobart, Launceston, Devonport, Burnie, VDL Co. grants","description":"\u003cp\u003eVan Diemen's Land (1844) by John Arrowsmith captures Tasmania at a decisive colonial moment, its title announcing both the island’s earlier name and the administrative clarity that defines the sheet. Across the island, colored outlines crisply distinguish counties and districts, while neat lettering and disciplined engraving present a balanced synthesis of political and physical knowledge. Arrowsmith threads settlements, roads, and surveyed boundaries across mountains, rivers, and coastal inlets, revealing how terrain shaped authority and ambition. Most striking is the careful plotting of land grants associated with the Van Diemen’s Land Company, a cartographic window onto policies that organized occupation and enterprise. Long overlooked and absent from many major cartographic references, this scarce edition distills imperial intent, geographic reality, and emerging local identity into a single, lucid view.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJohn Arrowsmith, a leading light of nineteenth-century British cartography, worked at a moment when surveying precision and presentation were advancing in tandem. He favored legible, information-rich layouts that privileged function without sacrificing grace, and this map is exemplary. The palette of washes is restrained yet purposeful, establishing jurisdictional hierarchies at a glance, while fine hachures articulate relief and guide the eye from the central highlands to the sea. Hydrography is traced with a sure hand, anchoring the island’s circulation and settlement patterns. Arrowsmith’s imprint signaled authority to administrators, explorers, and merchants alike, and here he converts a web of colonial reports and surveys into a coherent narrative. The understated cartouche underscores that ethos: elegance serving exactitude, ornament never obscuring fact.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePhysical geography animates the sheet with a topographer’s sensibility. Mountain chains mass in the interior, their flanks feathered into foothills, while river systems radiate toward the southern estuaries and the northern straits. Forested tracts, lakes, and marshier lowlands register as textures within this relief, reminding the viewer that resource, route, and risk were inseparable in Tasmanian space. The Derwent’s broad estuary frames Hobart’s position, and the Tamar lends form to Launceston’s northern reach, just as lesser rivers stitch the coast to the interior. Bays, headlands, and sounds are plotted with nautical clarity, expressing the island’s dual dependence on harbors and inland corridors. In Arrowsmith’s hands, nature is not backdrop but protagonist—the determinant of where lines of property, polity, and passage can plausibly run.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSettlements emerge with strategic logic along coasts and river mouths. Hobart anchors the south, its siting between sheltering hills and a navigable estuary emblematic of colonial pragmatism. Launceston balances the north, commanding an inland waterway and fertile hinterland, while younger coastal towns—Devonport to the northwest and Burnie farther west—signal expanding maritime reach. Arrowsmith marks these towns and their connecting routes with just enough emphasis to reveal a lattice of movement: from port to pasture, courthouse to company station. County outlines frame these nodes, but the engraver’s discipline ensures that borders never overwhelm the delicate tracery of streams, ridges, and shorelines. The result is a living geography of administration and growth, in which survey lines meet the contingencies of weather, gradient, and tide.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the heart of the composition lies the delineation of land grants to the Van Diemen’s Land Company, a rare, explicit mapping of corporate tenure and ambition. Their boundaries are drawn with surveyed rectitude, yet their placement—often against forest margins, river courses, or coastal access—betrays economic calculus: pasture, timber, and transport. This documentary clarity makes the map an essential witness to colonial land policy, capturing how authority parceled an island into units of governance and profit. The tasteful cartouche, scale, and notation quietly authenticate the whole, aligning with Arrowsmith’s credo of clarity. Scarce in the literature and seldom cited in major references, the map endures as both primary record and aesthetic achievement—an artifact in which design and documentary purpose are perfectly allied.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCities and towns on this map\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHobart: Capital city; modern population approximately 230,000.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLaunceston: Major city; modern population around 87,000.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDevonport: Regional city; modern population about 25,000.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBurnie: Port city; modern population around 19,000.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNotable Features \u0026amp; Landmarks\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDetailed representation of land grants to the Van Diemen's Land Company.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eColor outlines delineating different regions or counties.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMajor geographic features such as mountains, rivers, and forests.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLocations of settlements and towns.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBoundaries of various land grants.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe cartouche and other design elements that signify the map's authenticity.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistorical and design context\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDate Created: 1844.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMapmaker\/Publisher: John Arrowsmith.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMapmaker Context: John Arrowsmith was a significant cartographer known for producing detailed maps during the 19th century, a period marked by advancements in cartographic techniques and presentation.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTopics and Themes: The map showcases political and physical features of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) including land grants and settlements, a reflection of the colonial land policies of the time.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDesign\/Style: The map is noted for its colored outlines which distinguish various regions, reflecting the cartographic style of the era, characterized by clarity and detail.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHistorical Significance: This map is an important historical document reflecting the administrative and colonial land arrangements pertinent to the Van Diemen's Land Company. Its rarity is noted as it is not included in major cartographic references.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003ePlease double check the images to make sure that a specific town or place is shown on this map. You can also get in touch and ask us to check the map for you.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis map looks great at every size, but I always recommend going for a larger size if you have space. That way you can easily make out all of the details. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 70in (180cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please \u003ca href=\"\/es\/pages\/contact-us\"\u003eget in touch\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePlease note: the labels on this map are hard to read if you order a map that is 16in (40cm) or smaller. The map is still very attractive, but if you would like to read the map easily, please buy a larger size.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe model in the listing images is holding the 16x20in (40x50cm) version of this map.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe fifth listing image shows an example of my map personalisation service.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf you’re looking for something slightly different, check out my collection of the \u003ca href=\"\/es\/collections\/all-old-vintage-antique-maps\"\u003ebest old maps\u003c\/a\u003e to see if something else catches your eye.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePlease \u003ca href=\"\/es\/pages\/contact-us\"\u003econtact me\u003c\/a\u003e to check if a certain location, landmark or feature is shown on this map.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis would make a wonderful birthday, Christmas, Father's Day, work leaving, anniversary or housewarming gift for someone from the areas covered by this map.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis map is available as a giclée print on acid free archival matte paper, or you can buy it framed. The frame is a nice, simple black frame that suits most aesthetics. Please get in touch if you'd like a different frame colour or material. My frames are glazed with super-clear museum-grade acrylic (perspex\/acrylite), which is significantly less reflective than glass, safer, and will always arrive in perfect condition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Unique Maps Co.","offers":[{"title":"16x20in (40x50cm) \/ Map","offer_id":58033167761792,"sku":"UM00277043A","price":122.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true},{"title":"16x20in (40x50cm) \/ Framed map","offer_id":58033167794560,"sku":"UM00277044A","price":271.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true},{"title":"16x20in (40x50cm) \/ Framed canvas map","offer_id":58033167827328,"sku":"UM00277045A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true},{"title":"18x24in (45x60cm) \/ Map","offer_id":58033167860096,"sku":"UM00277046A","price":142.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true},{"title":"18x24in (45x60cm) \/ Framed map","offer_id":58033167892864,"sku":"UM00277047A","price":310.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true},{"title":"18x24in (45x60cm) \/ Framed canvas 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