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Rare early 19th Century Plan of Washington DC and the District of Columbia, published in Weimar in 1828.

The map is conceived in the style of Carey & Lea's 1822 map of the District of Columbia and was issued as a part of a serial publication by C.F. Weiland, issued between 1823 and 1829, which was intended to be bound as his Atlas von Amerika. 

This is the first example of the map we have seen offered for sale, with the exception of the two bound sets we have seen over the past 30 years.

Weiland's Atlas von Amerika

The maps for Carl Ferdinand Weiland's "Atlas von Amerika" were published between 1823 and 1829 in Weimar by the Geographisches Instituts. The maps were issued by subscription, with new maps and revised maps coming out periodically over the six-year history of the work. Some maps are known to exist in as many as three different editions, as Weiland was as meticulous in updating his maps as he was zealous in publishing new ones.

C.F. Weiland was one of the most prolific mapmakers in early 19th century Germany. In his treatise on 19th century maps published in Germany, Jurgen Espenhorst devotes the better part of 75 pages describing the many and varied productions of the Weiland and the Weimar Geographisches Institut.

C.F. Weiland's first cartographic work was published in the early 19th Century.  During the next half century, dozens of different works appear bearing his name and maps. One of the most enigmatic of these publications is his so-called Atlas von Amerika.   Espenhorst opines that sometime after the 1822 publication of Carey & Lea's Geographical Statistical & Historical Atlas of America (Philadelphia), Weiland became fascinated with this work and commenced publication of an improved version, employing the same style as Carey & Lea, who had in turn copied the historical atlas format first used by Las Casas.  Espenhorst states:

Of special interest is the Atlas von America [Atlas of the Americas] published by C.F. Weiland and Georg Hassel from 1823 to 1829. . . 

For a long time it remained unclear just what precursors Weiland was referring to.  All that was known was that the work was based on an atlas that had been created by Henry Charles Lea Carey (1793-1879) and Isaac Lea (1792-1886) and published in 1822 at their house in Philadelphia. . . 

. . . Carey and Lea first applied the Las Casas concept to a geographical atlas. The result was a cartographic work with 46 maps, covering all parts of North, Central and South America.

This work produced great interest in Europe almost immediately.  The countries of the Spanish Empire in Central and South America had just achieved their independence as a result of popular uprisings, and people were eager to learn about these new nations.  As a result, the Carey/Lea atlas was republished in London in 1823, with identical content, but a new title page.  Two years later, Jean Alexandre C. Burton [sic] published a French version of the Americas atlas in Paris, which contained 51 maps.  

In Weimar, work toward the publication of a German version of the Carey/Lea work must have begun immediately after a copy of the atlas arrived from Philadelphia in 1822.  Three sheets were already being offered in the Neue Allgemeine Ephemeriden in 1823.  On these sheets, the content of the accompanying text focused on the map around which the text was arranged.  

The principal author appears to have been Georg Hassel, because the publication of the atlas ended when he died in 1829.

 The publishing house had great hopes for this project, and worked hard to keep the maps up to date.  Delivery of installments began in 1823; by the beginning of 1824 seven sheets, covering Central and South America, had been published.  By 1826 a number of the maps had been revised, some of them as many as three times.

Of the 52 sheets which were originally planned, 51 were maps.  It would appear that not all of them were finally published, however.  It is not clear why the remaining five sheets did not appear. The most complete version the author has been able to verify contains only 46 maps.  Altogether eight copies are known to the author [Four copies in the US-Library of Congress and University of Chicago (30 maps), National Geographic Society (31 maps) and Roger Baskes (35 maps).  Three copies in Germany, Peutinger Gymnasium Ellswanger and Peterman copies (39 maps) Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin 46 maps). Peterman was also aware of a 4th example which was sold in Germany in the 1970s).

Thus, the map sheets of the German version of the Atlas of the Americas must be regarded as extremely rare.  On the other hand, the identification of this work is very difficult inasmuch as the sheets have neither page numbers, author names, nor titles.  The only identifying information is the inscription "Weimar, im Verlag des Geographischen Instituts. 182x." . . . It is therefore entirely possible that there are other maps from this work which have not been correctly catalogued.

Espenhorst, p. 156-160.

In many respects this "German Carey & Lea" is superior to the original and the 1825 French iteration by Buchon and better engraved than the original by Carey & Lea. The engraving quality for one is arguably higher in these German maps, and there are numerous improvements to the original cartography.  

Rarity

Weiland Atlases are very rare.  Only a few have come to market in the past 30 years and each is unique in its contents.