Map of Ceylon showing her Tea industry
- Title:
- Map of Ceylon showing her Tea industry
- Alternate Title:
- Map of Ceylon showing her Tea industry
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Gill, MacDonald
- Other Creators:
- Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board, publisher; H & C Press, Colombo, printer.
- Date:
- 1933
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2498.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2498_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1920 - 1939
- Subject:
- Advertising & Promotion
Pictorial - Measurement:
- 13 x 8 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This leaflet was part of an extensive campaign in the 1930s to promote Ceylon, and particularly its tea industry, by the newly-formed Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board (CTPB, whose initials appear at the top center of the map). It was created by MacDonald ("Max") Gill, one of the best-known commercial British artists of his time, who "produced a great many advertisements which made use of maps [using] a striking, colourful, pictorial style . . . . Boldness and information, within an instantly recognizable cartographic framework, offered real scope for the purposes of advertising and propaganda." Barber 2010, 166.
Gill produced two large posters for the CTPB in 1933, each identifying the principal ports, geographic features, tea growing areas, and rubber plantations of Ceylon. Each was filled with decorative elements typical of Gill's work: local wildlife (elephants, crocodiles, leopards, flamingos, etc.), sailing and steam ships, stippled seas, and his trademark sunburst at the upper right. See Rumsey #12060 and http://barronmaps.com/products/map-of-ceylon-1933/, accessed December 4, 2021.
He also produced this greatly reduced version (ID #2498.01), redrawn and simplified to accommodate the scale while preserving the look and impact of the much larger posters. These smaller images were used, in slightly varied forms, for the cover of brochures, as postcards, and in this case as a leaflet. The verso (ID #2498.02) is headed by a design of a teacup with the moon and sun above it and the slogan "Anytime is Tea Time. Morning, Noon and Night." Below is a short poem celebrating tea and the logo of "Ceylon Tea." This copy bears a stamp in purple ink reading "Specially Blended & Packed by the Tea Commissioner, Ceylon." It has been suggested that these leaflets may have been included with packages of tea for shipping to Britain.
Creation of these maps coincided with an important turning point in Gill's personal life. See generally Walker 2020, ch. 19. In January 1933, at an event in London, Gill unexpectedly encountered his goddaughter Priscilla Johnston, the youngest daughter of his close friend, the calligrapher Edward Johnston. Gill had not seen Priscilla since she was a child, and she had become a beautiful woman of 22 beginning a career as a writer. Although married with three children and 26 years older, Gill was instantly taken with her, and within weeks they began an affair.
By the fall Priscilla had become Gill's assistant, and the Ceylon Tea commission was the "The first map Priscilla helped him create." Walker 218. Together they studied the island's history, culture, geography, flora and fauna with the help of an expert who had spent most of his life in Ceylon as a planter and archeologist. The windhead at the lower right was modeled after Priscilla, and he inserted a tiny "P" beside it. On the day the map was finished, Gill wrote her, "You can't think how happy I felt, this morning, too, checking your colouring and adding-in portions of colour we hadn't had time to discuss. I'm glad 'P' got in to strengthen the bottom right corner." Ibid. (The letter is plainly visible on the two larger maps and on some copies of the smaller ones; it is difficult to make out on this copy due to the printing.) Their relationship was to last throughout Gill's lifetime, although they were unable to marry until 1946 because his wife had refused earlier to grant him a divorce.
For other examples of Gill's work in the collection, Search > "Gill". For his own thoughts on "Decorative Maps," see Gill 1944.
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.