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Description

One of the earliest separately issued large format maps of Southern California, covering Los Angeles County, the western parts of San Diego and San Bernardino Counties and parts of Kern and Santa Barbara Counties.

A remarkable large format map, published at the height of Southern California's first major land boom. One of the more unique featues of the map is the coloring of the Ranchos of Southern California, a features which we have not otherwise seen on a printed map. Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. The map also shows drainage, township and section lines, ranchos, land ownership, Indian reservations, railroads, etc. Includes index and table of distances from Los Angeles.

Our research of general maps of Southern California revealed only one earlier map, Map of private grants and public lands adjacent to Los Angeles and San Diego: in the southern part of California (Compiled by Clinton Day and printed by Britton & Rey in San Francisco (1869), which is known only in 1 example (Bancroft)).

The map is very rare. OCLC locates only 2 examples (Bancroft and Huntington copies). An example is also believed to have been in the personal collection of the venerable Los Angeles Antiquarian Bookseller, Glen Dawson. We are aware of only 2 examples on the market in the past 30 years, along with this example, from the collection of Warren Heckrotte.

Condition Description
Wall map on original linen with original rollers. Some minor damage at the top, but generally a very nice example of this rare map.
Schmidt Label & Litho. Co. Biography

The Schmidt Lithography Company was based in San Francisco. Max Schmidt, a German immigrant, founded his first printing business in 1873, and he was one of the first printers to use lithography on the West Coast. His plant burned twice, in 1884 and 1886, but by the 1890s he ran a factory in San Francisco, as well as branches in Portland and Seattle.

During the 1906 earthquake and fire the company’s premises were destroyed again. Schmidt quickly acquired a nearby paper factory and production continued practically uninterrupted. Within two years of the fire, Schmidt had rebuilt on the site of his former factory at the corner of Second and Bryant Streets.

Schmidt’s company was best known for its printed labels, but they also produced other items like separately-issued prints. The company was once the largest printing company on the West Coast and today they are remembered for the clock tower that still stands at Second and Bryant Streets.