Special Maps
The Round Oak Steel Works
“The Black Country is a district of the most extraordinary description. It seems as if the very genius of the place were a spirit of fire. The soil is coal and iron; the streams run black; the air is thick with smoke; and the night is lighted up by the glare of innumerable furnaces. It is as if Vulcan had chosen it for his workshop.”
— Elihu Burritt, Walks in the Black Country and Its Green Borderland (1868)
Carpenters Comments
This was my first real map and it is still one of my favourites. I live just over the road from where the factory was. Every time I have shown this map to someone from the Black Country they will have a story to tell you about it. Or if they are too young to remember it they can learn a little about the men and women that came before them.
World Atlas 1880
This world map is based on an 1880 atlas from the British Age of Empire, digitally curated and refined for clarity before being precision-carved in hardwood using CNC technology. Victorian maps were dense technical documents; this edition selectively simplifies detail to create a legible, visually balanced wall piece while retaining period typography and geography.
The result is a modern interpretation of imperial-era cartography—historically grounded, digitally processed, and engineered for scale, contrast, and architectural display.
Carpenters Comments
I did this largely because I like atlases from this period. How the world has changed in a 150 years! But technically it is a nighmare to produce at the A2 scale because the righting is so small. In A1 larger that problem goes away. If you would like a large scale map please contact me because I would like to see it too.