Antique Map of France with Wine, Cider and Beer Regions, Vienna, 1873

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This antique wine map of France shows the vineyards and the cider and beer countries as they stood in 1870, … Read more This antique wine map of France shows the vineyards and the cider and beer countries as they stood in 1870, from the France Agricole series prepared for the French agricultural exhibit at the Vienna Exposition of 1873. Every department is named with its chief town, and the three drinking regions are washed in separate colours. The key at the lower left gives Vignobles, Pays a cidre and Pays a biere, with a metric scale of one in 3,330,000. Of all the sheets in the album this is the one that hangs best, and nineteenth century French wine maps are steadily wanted by collectors of wine history and of French regional cartography. The sheet comes from the folio of maps, plans and drawings that the Direction de l'Agriculture of the French Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce assembled for its own exhibit at the Exposition Universelle held in Vienna in 1873, printed in Paris by the Imprimerie Nationale. The album gathered the statistical cartography, the model state farms, the breed portraits and the prize silver by which France meant to present its agriculture to the world. Its thematic maps belong to the first generation of printed statistical mapping, a field now collected for the history of data visualisation quite as much as for the history of farming. The map is a steel engraving with printed colour, issued in 1873. The colour is printed rather than applied by hand. As a piece of early statistical cartography, this antique wine map of France suits a study, library, office or country kitchen, and it can be framed on its own or hung as a group with other maps from the album. The sheet is in good condition, with light age toning, scattered foxing and visible horizontal and vertical fold lines. There is minor edge wear, and the colours remain well preserved. The toning is the ordinary result of age rather than damage. Please see the images for a full view of the condition. This is an original antique map, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed. See less