Pulp-era World Map

[Wirelizard]

I was down at one of our best local art/craft supply stores today and had another look at some reproduction world maps they sell. There's no copyright date on the original (the reprint is (c) 2003) but examining the borders, especially in Europe, gives it a date of 1919-1920s, no later.

It has to be post-WW1 (from Germany's borders and others), and lots of material from pre-1923 is now out of copyright in many countries, so that's probably the best range for the age of the original.

The reproduction is well done, very clear printing on nice textured paper. The original had some seam wear and minor discolouration that's been reproduced faithfully, but it's just extra character and doesn't obscure the details at all.

Made by Cavallini of Italy as part of their 'Decorative Wrap' line of papers (link); the original map might have been by Stanfords (link) as both company's names appear on this. The map is about 19"x28". Cavallini actually produce a whole range of 'Decorative Wrap' paper, almost all reproduced historical material and including a bunch of other historical maps - New York, London, Paris & Italy are all at our local art store.

Best part was the price: $4.50 Canadian! (about 2.50 Euro or UKP)

I'll try and get a quick photo of the map in the next few days; I can see using it as photo backdrops in the future too.

Edit to Add: This map has [wiki]Tannu Tuva[/wiki] on it, which means it cannot date later than 1926 or before 1921. From the linked Wikipedia article: "Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Communist troops took Tuva in January 1920. The chaos accompanying this era allowed the Tuvans to again proclaim their independence. On 14 August, 1921, the Bolsheviks (supported by Russia) established a Tuvan People's Republic, called Tannu Tuva until 1926."

Aside from Germany's post-WW1 borders (easy to spot), the existence of the USSR & Tannu Tuva, does anyone know any other geopolitical clues I could use to nail down a more exact date for this map than '21-26?

[Cory]

Tannu Tuva is not that reliable a guide as I have a globe from late '38 or early '39 (Austria merged with Germany) that still shows Tannu Tuva. By and large maps are best dated by starting events as that establishes a "no earlier than" time frame.

Does it show the Machukuo protectorate in north eastern China? That would make it post 1931.

1932 sees the creation of Saudi Arabia.

1936 Ethiopia becomes an Italian colony.

[Poliorketes]

Other Indicators might be the existence (or absence= of the free state of Fiume/Rijeka between Yugoslavia and Italy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_State_of_Fiume, the turkish borders and the silesian borders - parts of upper Silesia went to Poland in 1922, the polish-russian border or the borders in Morocco.

[Wirelizard]

Interesting... I'm having fun with detective work trying to nail the age of this thing down.

Fiume appears to be part of Italy.
Leningrad is named Leningrad (changed in 1924 from Petrograd).
Saudi Arabia does appear.
Abyssinia (Ethiopia) isn't shown as Italian.
Manchuria isn't shown as a Japanese territory, or as seperate at all from the Chinese Republic.
Yugoslavia is shown, instead of the [wiki]Kingdom_of_Serbs,_Croats_and_Slovenes[/wiki] (1929 for that change, except that the Wikipedia article says "but the term Yugoslavia was its colloquial name from the very beginning").

So that leaves us with a tentative dating of "1930 plus/minus a few years" rather than early 1920s like I'd originally thought.

[Poliorketes]

Then take a look at the paraguayan-bolivian border.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaco_War