An attractive postcard map of Ceylon designed by MacDonald Gill for the Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board [c1934]

Map of Ceylon showing her Tea industry

Bright printed colours. Unused. Blank verso. Very slight crease in mid left blank margin and at top left corner at card edge. One small fox spot in upper right blank margin. Overall excellent clean condition.

The widespread distribution of these wonderful postcard maps designed by MacDonald Gill (his signature MacD G appears in the lower right corner) formed another strand of the advertising and promotional campaign of the Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board in the early 1930’s to encourage the wider consumption of Ceylon tea. Their initials appear just above the title of the map (Issued by CTPB) in the upper right corner of the engraving. Gill’s distinctive design style is immediately apparent, with a typical corner sunburst and windheads and an array of ships and galleons in the seas around Ceylon as used on his larger pictorial poster, as well as finely detailed depictions of native peoples, flora and fauna within the Island’s interior. The main coastal ports and settlements are identified using unfurled scrollwork banners. The principal tea growing regions are also clearly denoted. The card appears in numerous slightly different variants and states, some examples being printed in Great Britain, some in Ceylon. Those printed in Ceylon usually bear the imprint of H & C Press Colombo or have the simple wording : “Printed in Ceylon”. Some are designed as postcards, others as small advertising flyers, still others as the colour cover for a short promotional booklet on Ceylon Tea or as the illustrative frontispiece for a commercial Ceylon tea order form. Good examples of these uncommon original MacDonald Gill Ceylon postcard maps are increasingly collectable and sought-after.