The Pictorial Missionary Map of the World, £400 at John Nicholson’s.
Drawn by John Gilbert (1810-99) and engraved and printed by Edmund Evans, the 1861 map presents illustrates a very one-sided view of the spread of Christianity across two hemispheres. Multiple vignettes compare and contrast the enlightened views and behaviour of the Christian world with the cruelty and oppression of other religions.
Judaism is not included, with individual colour-coded religions restricted to Protestant, Roman Catholic, Greek Church, Mahometan, Decayed Christian Church and Heathen. Picked out in black, the Heathen regions cover much of North America, the Amazon basin, the foot of South America, almost the entire sub-Saharan Africa, and the whole world from India eastwards including Australia and New Zealand.
The Pictorial Missionary Map of the World, £400 at John Nicholson’s.
As an ethnological vision of the world, providing insights into the social, moral and political accepted norms of the time in Western society, it carried an estimate of £200-300 and sold at £400.
