29 county maps including Antrim, Londonderry / Derry, Monaghan and Dublin have been added to our exhibition. To join our private preview list, please e-mail megan@irishartgroup.com.

These maps are dated 1849.

Drawn by R Creighton… engraved by John Dower (1825 – 1901).. 9.5” x 7.5”(23 cms x 18 1)cms)… original outline colour…from  Samuel Lewis’ “Topographical History of Ireland”. First published in 1837 in two volumes, with an accompanying atlas, it marked a new and significantly higher standard in such accounts of Ireland. Apart from “The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland” published in 1845, it has not been superseded. Lewis relied on the information provided by local contributors and on the earlier works published such as Coote’s Statistical Survey (1801), Taylor and Skinner’s Maps of the Road of Ireland (1777), Pigot’s Trade Directory (1824) and other sources. He also used the various parliamentary reports and in particular the census of 1831 and the education returns of the 1820s and early 1830s. Local contributors were given the proof sheets for final comment and revision. The names of places are those in use prior to the publication of the Ordnance Survey in 1838. Distances are in Irish miles (the statute mile is 0.62 of an Irish mile). The dictionary gives a unique picture of Ireland before the Famine.