Malte-Brun "A New General Atlas Exhibiting The Five Great Divisions of the globe."

A New General Atlas Exhibiting The Five Great Divisions of the globe.  [from front label…according to the Geography of M. Malte Brun.]  Philadelphia: John Grigg, 1829.  Quarto.  Original three-quarters leather, with original paper label.  Complete with 40 engraved maps.  Full original hand color.  Most maps with some slight spotting.  Otherwise, crisp and attractive maps.  Cf. Phillips: 751, 775; Rumsey: 287.

From 1827 to 1829, Philadelphia publisher Anthony Finley produced an American version of Conrad Malte-Brun's famous Universal Geography. Malte-Brun was a Danish geographer who produced a number of influential works which were copied and printed by numerous publishers in different countries. To illustrate the geography, in 1828 Finley added an atlas of 40 maps based on Malte-Brun, which was then reissued the following year by John Grigg. Many of the non-American maps are based on maps by British cartographer Aaron Arrowsmith, but the American maps are Finley's original work, engraved by J.H. Young. The map of the mid-west, "Western States & Territories," is interesting for its depiction of the Michigan Territory and "North West Territory Attached To Michigan." The map of Mexico is of note for its depiction of "Texas or New Estremaduia," for this map was issued near the beginning of the tensions between Austin's colonists and the Mexican government that would lead to the Texas revolution.

Middle States map from the 1828 edition of this atlas