early london underground map rarity

Rare pictorial map of London produced to commemorate the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908.

This map shows the Exhibition in the top left at Shepherds Bush and depicts the two main London Underground lines (the Metropolitan & District Railway (red) and the Electric Tube Railway (blue)) reaching it. The two lines were distinguished in their production, the Metropolitan and District being built earlier in 1860s and the Electric Tube all being opened since 1900, as well as being operated by separate companies.

It was George Philip & Sons who a year earlier had first coined the design of a unified map of the London Underground with different colours corresponding to different lines.

Coloured lithograph folding into original limp pictorial boards with title in English and French, spine lacking, map itself clean and bright with some reinforcement to most folds, dimensions: 109 x 58 cm.