This extraordinary map of France, published in Paris in 1844 by Georg Michael Bauerkeller, represents the pinnacle of 19th-century relief cartography: it is not only a geographical tool but also a refined work of book art that bears witness to the transition toward modern, three-dimensional representations of the landscape.
The area depicted encompasses all of mainland France, Belgium, and portions of neighboring countries, with an inset dedicated to Corsica in the lower right corner.
The most striking feature is the exaggerated relief: the mountain ranges—from the Pyrenees to the Alps and the Massif Central—rise powerfully from the surface, allowing for a tactile and immediate understanding of the terrain.
Bauerkeller uses a vivid color palette with pastel shades that distinguish the river basins and regions.
In the lower left corner, a box lists the “Bassins Généraux”:
I – Atlantic Basin (Garonne, Loire, Adour, Gironde)
II – Mediterranean Basin (Rhône)
III – English Channel Basin
IV – North Sea Basin (Rhine, Scheldt)
In the upper right corner, a dense table lists the main peaks and passes of the Alps, the Pyrenees, and other mountain ranges, indicating their respective altitudes in meters.
The elegant black border features gold lettering typical of luxury publications of the era. At the bottom, the text reads: “Imprimées en couleur par Bauerkeller & C.ie Brevetés à Paris,” followed by the technical notation “Procédé Géomontographique.” There are also two graphic scales: one for horizontal distance (in kilometers) and a specific one for vertical relief, necessary given the intentional disproportion between the two scales to emphasize the mountains.
The Innovation of Geomontography
The core value of this work lies in its production method: geomontography. Bauerkeller, together with his brother, patented this system around 1839 to overcome the limitations of flat maps.
The process was extremely complex and innovative:
Unlike many hand-colored maps of the era, Bauerkeller used a sophisticated chromolithographic printing process.
The sheet of paper, moistened and made pliable, was pressed between a punch and a metal die engraved with extreme precision.
To preserve the relief over time without the paper collapsing under its own weight or due to humidity, Bauerkeller applied a mixture of plaster or papier-mâché to the back, thereby fixing the mountain’s three-dimensional “memory.”
This technique was considered a technological marvel: for the first time, it offered the general public and educational institutions the opportunity to “touch” geography, making complex concepts such as watersheds and landforms immediately understandable.
The technical difficulty was extraordinary. The fact that Bauerkeller employed dozens of workers to produce relatively small print runs of maps attests to the amount of labor required by the géomontographique process.
Georg Michael Bauerkeller filed a patent application for his invention in France on January 18, 1839. However, although the production process was patented, the term “géomontographie” was not. The final patent was granted on July 13, 1840, for the production of relief maps. Legal protection proved necessary: this period was particularly marked by an attempt to counterfeit the company’s work by a former employee and collaborator, Obermüller, who published two relief maps in 1843 and 1844 (France and Germany).
Bauerkeller’s embossed cards are among the rarest items on the market. There are two reasons for this: the complexity of the production process, which limited print runs, and the inherent fragility of the material. The combination of embossed papier-mâché, varnishes, pigments, and paper is highly vulnerable to humidity, impact, temperature fluctuations, and mechanical stress. The varnish, intended to protect the surface, tends over time to break down or create tensions that lead to cracking and detachment of the relief. It is therefore not surprising that the vast majority of the pieces produced have not survived intact in the nearly two centuries since their creation.
Georg Michael Bauerkeller was born on January 4, 1805, in Wertheim, in what is now the state of Baden-Württemberg, to Georg Philip Bauernkeller and his second wife, Anna Elisabetha Grossmann. His half-brother, Georg Leonhart Bauerkeller (GLB), was born on October 22, 1809, to Georg Philip’s third wife, Sophia Catharina Klein.
Georg Michael lived in Frankfurt between 1831 and 1833, where he married Anna Elisabeth Hoock on July 24, 1831. As a printer, he was interested in combining lithography (for the drawing) and typography (for the text) in the production of maps. He published several maps using this technique through J. P. Streng: a road map of Germany, a map of the Rhine and Main regions, a map of the spas of the Duchy of Nassau, and a map of Frankfurt. Bauerkeller promoted his work by distributing samples of his maps to various academic societies in Germany, France, and England.
In March 1835, together with the art and book dealer Friedrich Gutsch, he founded a new printing company in Karlsruhe: “Artistisches Institut Bauerkeller & Gutsch.” They then opened a branch in Paris in 1836, where the Bauerkeller family likely immigrated in the summer of 1837. In 1837, the company split into two separate entities: Bauerkeller retained the Paris branch (which became Bauerkeller & Cie) and Gutsch retained the Karlsruhe branch.
Bauerkeller & Cie was awarded a bronze medal at the 1839 Industrial Exhibition for its typographic works, particularly its relief city maps. The first map of this type, that of Paris, appeared in 1839. The accolades multiplied in the following years: Bauerkeller won another bronze medal in 1844 and a silver one in 1849. It participated in various national and international exhibitions (Berlin 1844, Paris 1855, Vienna 1873) and received a second-class medal at the 1855 Paris World’s Fair.
Thanks to constant technical innovation and unparalleled commercial dynamism, the Bauerkeller brothers produced and distributed on a large scale a vast number of high-quality, affordable relief maps. The Bauerkeller production marked a new milestone in the democratization of relief maps, and their works dominated the new market they had helped create. The diversity of the maps produced and their international impact are unique in the history of relief cartography.
Georg Michael died in Paris on March 1, 1886, having had the joy of seeing his son Guillaume Rodolphe embark on a brilliant career as a violinist.
