Sunday, October 16, 2011

Alas, no decorative cartouche…

Since this morning, I’ve been working on the maps for the National Trail Guide.  The job was made all the more difficult because the map I was using for reference was to a different scale.  As I could not get it scanned and enlarged electronically until Tuesday, I set about doing it by hand the hard way – grid square by grid square. 

Maybe the French mapmaker, who made this map of the neighbouring island of Martinique in 1732, looked down on my labours with a wry smile.  After all, he had no electronic aids either.  The hand coloured copper plate engraving puts today’s computer generated maps to shame.  Alas, there will be no decorative cartouche or compass rose embellishments on my trail maps.

1 comment:

  1. I love maps. I don't really know why, but they fascinate me - especially Ordnance Survey maps with all of their contour lines and symbols!

    Unbelievable! The word verification for this comment is 'maphr'.

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