Calcutta and Howrah Tape Indicator Map

Calcutta and Howrah Tape Indicator Map.

Tape indicator issue of a guide to Calcutta and Howrah, 88 x 64.5 cm, printed in colours, with original numbered tape, some marginal creasing and wear to folds, laid on linen as issued, folding into blue cloth covers, worn, with pocket for index (pp. 43, printed boards, dated 1934). Swinhoe Street is marked on the map with a cross in blue ink, and underlined in the index.

Tape-indicator maps, patented by the German-born stationer Joseph Schlesinger in the 1850s and “enabling any place to be found on the map with mathematical certainty” seem to have peaked in popluarity in the Edwardian era, although a few examples continued to be manufactured even after the Second World War. The index lists street names with corresponding numbers on the tape and the map itself. Swinhoe Street, for example, can be located by stretching the tape to number 72 in the margin of the map, and looking for number 48 on the tape.

Price

£450.00

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance