Saturday, February 21, 2009

Real Maps

Hoping people might find these interesting and even inspiring.


This is a real map of the Duchy of Courland (or Kurland) that I downloaded some time ago, but now I can't locate the link. If my information is correct the cartographer's name is Schreiber and the map is from 1749. An interesting tidbit I found is that the Duchy had the Caribbean Islands of Trinidad and Tobago as possessions for a time while the Duchy was an independent country.

Here are some links to other real maps of the 17th and 18th centuries:

This first link is to a set of atlases covering portions of France at a very large scale, mid to late 1700's.

This link is to a map by Matthaus (or Mathias) Vischer of portions of Austria, from around 1697. This is the map I used as inspiration for my maps.

And finally, a link to a blog that has pictures and links to quite a few manuscript French maps from the 17th-19th centuries.

On the miniature front I am in the process of prepping a bunch of minis (mostly SYW stuff, but also a few fantasy minis I received from a friend recently or had sitting boxed away for a while) for painting so I may not have any new finished ones to post before this month is over. This is not my favorite step, but it's a necessary one. It takes time to clean all the flash and mold lines, drill and pin parts as needed, and glue to bases. I also use greenstuff to hide the join between the miniature's base and the washers I glue them to, or to plug the holes in slottabases as the case may be. As I said, it takes time, but I believe the result is worth the time and effort.

6 comments:

Capt Bill said...

I share your love of maps and truely enjoy viewing your map of Beerstein. Thanks...Bill

tradgardmastare said...

Most interesting links- many thanks for posting them...
Alan

tradgardmastare said...

Anyone know of similar maps of germany for the same period- especially of say round Stutggart?
Alan

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David Morfitt said...

Good links, FB. :-)

Alan - for Germany try this page: http://www.maphistory.info/imageeurcont.html and this one linked from there: http://opac.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/DB=1/LNG=DU/CMD?ACT=SRCHA&IKT=1016&SRT=YOP&TRM=Elektronisches+Kartenarchiv The Marburg archive also has more general maps scattered amongst the battle plans: http://www.digam.net/?str=177

HTH

David
http://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Why, you can almost, just about see the Grand Duchy of Stollen, the Electorate of Zichenau, and a few other tiny neighboring states just to the southwest of Courland on your map. . . Especially if you squint your eyes!

Best Regards,

Stokes