A New and Accurate Map of the Southern Provinces of Hindoostan showing the Territories ceded by Tippoo Sahib to the different Powers [Set of 3]

1794, 1800, 1808

Copper engraving on paper (each)

1794: 11 x 9 in (27.9 x 22.9 cm)
1800: 11.5 x 9 in (29.2 x 22.9 cm)
1808: 12 x 10 in (30 x 26 cm)

A rare three-state sequence of Wilkinson’s A New and Accurate Map of the Southern Provinces of Hindoostan, showing the territories ceded by Tippoo Sahib to the different powers, charting the evolving British understanding of Mysore, the Carnatic, and Southern India across the years of Tipu Sultan’s defeat and imperial consolidation.

This exceptional group brings together three successive states—1794, 1800, and 1808—of one of the most significant British maps of Southern India produced at the turn of the nineteenth century. Rather than issuing new plates, Wilkinson repeatedly reworked a single engraved copperplate, updating its textual apparatus and political delineations as warfare, diplomacy, and annexation reshaped the subcontinent.

These maps focus on the changing political boundaries after the Third and Fourth Anglo-Mysore Wars.

1. First Anglo-Mysore War (1767–1769)
2. Second Anglo-Mysore War (1780 – 1784)
3. Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790–1792) The war ended after the 1792 siege of Srirangapatana and the signing of the Treaty of Srirangapatana, according to which Tipu had to surrender half of his kingdom to the British East India Company and its allies. The first map (second edition) shows Nayr’s country (North Kerala), Dindigul country, and Namakool (Namakkal) provinces ceded to the British under this treaty.
4. Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1798–1799)
The British won a decisive victory at the siege of Seringapatam (1799). Tipu was killed during the defence of the city. Much of the remaining Mysore territory was annexed by the British (as can be seen with the red colour), with the Nizam and the Marathas (British East India Company) predominating the map. Some areas of the map are labelled with 1792 and 1799, showcasing the region that was ceded to the British. A small core, around Mysore and Seringapatam, was restored to the Indian prince Yuvaraja Krishnaraja Wadiyar III (later Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar III) under his grandmother's regency.

The 1794 state remains anchored to conflict: Mysore is still defined by its former boundaries, with Tipu Sultan’s dominion at the cartographic centre of gravity, explaining loss without asserting finality.

The 1800 revision is the most historically explicit. By distinguishing territories ceded in 1792 from those annexed in 1799 following the storming of Seringapatam, the map becomes a chronological document of conquest—cartography functioning as imperial accounting.

By 1808, the narrative had shifted decisively. Tipu Sultan disappears as a structuring presence, replaced by a compartmentalised administrative order of British possessions, jaghires, circars, dependencies, and princely states, rendered as a stable and enumerated system.

Surviving examples of Wilkinson’s map are typically encountered as isolated states. The preservation of all three together allows close comparative study of how Southern India passed, visually and intellectually, from contested sovereignty into British administrative geography.

(Set of three)

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This lot will be shipped in "as is" condition. For further details, please refer to the images of individual lots as reference for the condition of each lot.