Motoring Map of India

1917

Offset print on paper backed with linen

Will form a huge map of 91.5 x 87 cm when opened. And when folded 18.5 x 11 cm

A rare 1917 wartime Bartholomew Motoring Map of India - documenting the earliest motorable routes and strategic roads across the subcontinent

This map represents a fascinating moment in the history of transport, military logistics and cartography. Produced during the First World War, when road mobility assumed new strategic importance, Bartholomew’s motoring maps extended their successful British series into India, offering one of the earliest comprehensive representations of motorable routes across the subcontinent.

The map highlights trunk roads, provincial highways, engineer-maintained routes, and connections to emerging railway nodes. The period was crucial: motor vehicles were gradually being introduced for administrative, postal, and military use, especially in the North-West Frontier, Punjab, Bengal and Bombay Presidency. Bartholomew, celebrated for his clean layer-colour printing (“Bartholomew’s System”), combines clarity with visual hierarchy, identifying gradients, dangerous passes, and long-distance east–west and north–south arteries.

This 1917 edition is also historically situated at the height of wartime mobilisation, when improved overland routes were essential for internal troop movement, supply chains and communication. Today, it stands as an important and visually compelling record of early automotive India.

NON-EXPORTABLE

This lot is offered at NO RESERVE

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.