Maggs Bros.

An excellent map of Nejd showing the entire region and the head of the Persian Gulf, including Kuwait. It is not only significant for its high level of detail but also for being one of the first printed maps to show Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

The map was published as part of the aforementioned Atlas universel de géographie physique… (Brussels, 1827), which was a pioneering work for several reasons. It was the first world atlas to be printed using lithography and was also the first atlas of its kind to cover the entire globe in maps of a large uniform scale. The latter meant that the maps could be joined to form a three-dimensional terrestrial globe of great size, with a diameter of 7.75 metres.

Vandermaelen almost certainly drew on the work of Edme-François Jomard in creating his map of Nejd as the region was sparsely represented in Western maps until the Frenchman contributed an illuminating geographical appendix to Félix Mengin’s Histoire de L’Egypte sous le Gouvernement de Mohammed-Aly… (1823), which was one of the first European books to detail the Ottoman-Wahhabi War (1811-18). Jomard’s appendix contained geographical notes on Nejd, a list of place-names and an extremely detailed map, Carte comprenant le Pays de Nedjd ou Arabie Centrale… (Paris, 1823).

Though individual maps from Vandermaelen’s world atlas are often offered for sale, the present map is scarce in commerce. Only one has appeared at auction, making £12,075 at Sotheby’s in 1999.