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As mentioned before on the blog if you have just a hint of knowledge about the fascinating world of maps you'll appreciate that old maps exist in a vast variety of forms, let alone the many differences in shape, size, subject and appearance. So it's fair to ask what do collectors collect? Here’s a quick list of some of the most popular categories of collecting:
1. By area 2. By mapmaker 3. Of a particular period 4. Displaying particular features 5. By theme 6. Individual significance
7. Appearance alone 8. For investment
All the above have a special reason of interest for collectors as varied as the very collectors themselves. Here are two types of map that map enthusiasts love to collect.
1. By area 2. By mapmaker 3. Of a particular period 4. Displaying particular features 5. By theme 6. Individual significance
7. Appearance alone 8. For investment
All the above have a special reason of interest for collectors as varied as the very collectors themselves. Here are two types of map that map enthusiasts love to collect.
County Map of Dorsetshire by Ebden & Duncan c1833 County Map of Warwickshire by John Speed c1611
Just One Thing - By Area
This is one of the most popular geographic themes for collectors. It allows for a large amount of scope while keeping a limit on the size of a collection and control on cost or the level of investment.
You may decide to collect various antique maps of a specific area, like county maps. If you're based in the UK maybe english county maps are of interest to you. Some people collect maps by various mapmakers but only of a specific county. There will be other maps available about the area also, like road maps, town plans, river maps or some with other cartographic features of interest.
Collecting rare maps "By Area" is just one thing thats popular with map collectors. These kinds of maps are readily available in the current market. If these types of maps are something you already collect I'd love to hear why they interest you? Please join in the conversation and leave a comment below...
Just One Thing - By Area
This is one of the most popular geographic themes for collectors. It allows for a large amount of scope while keeping a limit on the size of a collection and control on cost or the level of investment.
You may decide to collect various antique maps of a specific area, like county maps. If you're based in the UK maybe english county maps are of interest to you. Some people collect maps by various mapmakers but only of a specific county. There will be other maps available about the area also, like road maps, town plans, river maps or some with other cartographic features of interest.
Collecting rare maps "By Area" is just one thing thats popular with map collectors. These kinds of maps are readily available in the current market. If these types of maps are something you already collect I'd love to hear why they interest you? Please join in the conversation and leave a comment below...
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Back in June 2019 one of the world’s greatest libraries of seafaring books and atlases went to auction at Christies in London. This included 203 lots with beautiful 17th century atlases from the Dutch Golden Age of Cartography, important and decorative single-sheet maps, as well rare narratives of the great voyages of exploration and discovery.
For breadth, scope and quality, the Mopelia Collection is one of the finest such collections to appear at auction. Here are some highlights from the sale with hammer sale prices. You can feast you eyes over some of these beauties including Johannes van Keulen's De Groote Nieuwe Vermeerder-de Zee-Atlas ofte WaterWerelt. Published in Amsterdam in 1688, this is a handsomely engraved and beautifully hand-coloured example with the frontispiece and maps highlighted in gold, perhaps one of the greatest 17th-century Dutch sea-atlases to come to the market in recent years.
KEULEN, Johannes van (1654-1715). De Groote Nieuwe Vermeerderde Zee-Atlas ofte Water-Werelt. Amsterdam: Johannes van Keulen, 1688. A hand-coloured maritime atlas of unprecedented scope and splendour. The charts after Claes Janszoon Voght combine baroque artistry with a technical ability that resulted in a half century of steady publication for the atlas from 1680 to 1734. Voght also wrote the short text. As Koeman stresses, the atlas was different to its predecessors in going through a process of continual enlargement and in having a content that was so variable. Estimate: £150,000 - £200,000 Sold: £395,250
RENARD, Louis (fl. c.1702-1707) – Reinier OTTENS (1698-1750) and Josua OTTENS (1704-1765). Atlas van Zeevaert en Koophandel door de Geheele Weereldt. Amsterdam: Reinier and Josua Ottens, 1745. Magnificent, hand-coloured copy of the corrected issue of Renard’s Atlas de la navigation et du commerce (Amsterdam: 1715), which had been printed from plates used for Frederik de Wit’s maritime atlas of c.1675. The firm of R. and J. Ottens produced a French edition in 1739, slightly different from 1715, and then this 1745 edition with Dutch text and careful correction of the plates. Estimated: £25,000 - £35,000 Sold: £50,000
GOOS, Pieter (1615/1616-1675). Orbis Terrarum Nova et accuratissima tabula. Nieuwe Werelt Kaert. [Amsterdam: 1666 or later]. Very rare double-hemisphere world map, from Pieter Goos' maritime atlas, 'the finest printed at the time' (Shirley). This map's predecessors were the world maps published by Visscher and Blaeu - in fact Goos' atlases were often added to Blaeu's Atlas Maior as a maritime supplement. Estimate £6000 - £8000 Sold: £11,250
WAGHENAER, Lucas Janszoon (1533-1606). De Zee Custen tußchen Dovere en Orfordtsneße, daer de Teemse de Vermaerde Rivire va Lonen gelegen is. [Amsterdam: Cornelis Claesz, 1588]. Van Doetecum engraved map of the coast of eastern England, from Dover to Great Yarmouth, showing the mouth of the Thames, coloured by a contemporary hand. Koeman IV, Wag 6 (23c); New Hollstein 816/VII. Estimate £800 - £1200 Sold: £1500
For those of you who like to know the numbers: Sale total including buyer’s premium: GBP 2,301,000
Source and with thanks to Christies.com
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Rare original Antique Lithotint on India Paper "Buckerel Church" Honiton Devonshire by William Spreat from Spreat's Churches of Devon. Drawn from Nature and on stone by William Spreat. Printed by Charles Hullmandel c1842. India paper laid on heavy wove paper as original published. Some light creasing to sheet, engraved image remains good. Hand Coloured / tinted in watercolour. . . If you're looking to have antique maps or prints hand coloured get in touch . . . The Colourist
In the 1840's William Spreat dominated the Exeter scene. One of the earliest of his publications was the "Picturesque sketches of the Churches of Devon" as it records "Drawn from Nature and on Stone." The work was originally published in eighteen parts with 74 lithographs and was completed in 1842.
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This is just a small example of some of my work on engraved prints as a "colourist" . . . If you are looking to have antique maps or prints coloured get in touch . . . Info Link: https://bit.ly/3CTs2a1
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Understanding why a map was made, the lack of technologies at the time, how a map fits in with the perceived geography, beliefs, social and cultural realities of a bygone era all has a bearing on how you view such a map today. All these things can influence what maps we are personally attracted to. Mapping of the sky and its celestial bodies within star charts goes all the way back to Ptolemy who is credited with creating the first star catalogue around the year 150. But the Golden Age of celestial cartography is roughly 1600 to 1800. All benefiting from the technological advances in astronomical observations and printing techniques. Many of the most notable star atlases and maps can cost thousands but there are many available at a reasonable price range for the novice collector with a celestial interest.
Above: "Mars" and "Venus” from Alain Mallets work Description de l' Univers'. These plates are from Volume 1 of the French text edition published by Johann David Zunner 1684. The plates engraved for Zunner are close copies of the originals and still have French titles and names. A few are signed by there engravers: J.P. Aubrey, Johann J. Vogel and W.C. Daucher.
See More Star Charts
See More Star Charts
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Stipple engraving is a style of print making that was first used by artists in the 15th century, in the production of fine works that we now term Old Master Prints.The technique most commonly involves the artist scoring their design into a copper print plate by means of a pattern of dots which, when applied to the final print, can convey the effect of shade, tone, or definition.
Above: The King Psammetichus of Egypt in Love with Rhodope & The Beautiful Rhodope in Love with Aesop from paintings of the same size by Signora Angelica Kauffman in the Possession of Charles Boddam Jun Esq. Published as the Act Directs 5th Jan 1783 by E. M. Diemar No 377 Strand, London. Bartolozzi was born in Florence but migrated to England, and in 1768 was elected as a founding member of the Royal Academy in London (the RA did not admit engravers at this time but made an exception in his case, getting around the rules by electing Bartolozzi as a painter). He was already hailed as the best engraver in Italy when he met George III's librarian Richard Dalton in 1763. Dalton enticed Bartolozzi to London with a promise of an appointment as engraver to the king. In England he became the most celebrated exponent of the 'stipple' technique whereby he produced prints using dots rather than lines . . . More info: Bartolozzi Prints
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John Seller, appointed Hydrographer to Charles II in I671, was a maker of mathematical instruments and globes as well as a publisher of marine and terrestrial atlases. His output was considerable and wide-ranging,covering individual charts and maps and complete atlases, but throughout his life he was beset with financial problems which limited the scope of his bigger projects. Of these, the English Pilot, the first part of which successful, but he was able to complete only the first volume without assistance. The details of issue of the later volumes and their subsequent editions are too complicated to be covered here; suffice to say that the work was continued in one form or another for over a century, being issued under many different namesincluding John and Samuel Thornton, W. Fisher, C. Price, Richard and William Mount, Thomas Page and Davidson.
Above: Antique map of Bedfordshire which appeared in John Seller's Anglia Contracta (London: J. Seller, 1694/1695). John Seller (fl. 1660-1697 Engraved area approx: 5" x 6" ( 125mm x 150mm) to plate mark. External mount size: 10.25" X 11" (260mm x 280mm). See Bedfordshire Map
Although the Englisb Pilot was a popular work, Seller used Dutch sources and often actual Dutch copper plates which he adapted for the market by the use of English titles and details. As many of these plates were up to fifty years old their accuracy left much to be desired, a fact which directly inspired the call for a new coastal survey subsequently completed by Captain Greenvile Collins. Later, in 1695, Seller published an Atlas of County Maps, the Anglia Contracta. (Text extract from Antique Maps a Collectors Guide: Moreland C. & David Bannister. Publisher: Phaidon Christie's limited 1989. Antique Maps a Collectors Guide
Although the Englisb Pilot was a popular work, Seller used Dutch sources and often actual Dutch copper plates which he adapted for the market by the use of English titles and details. As many of these plates were up to fifty years old their accuracy left much to be desired, a fact which directly inspired the call for a new coastal survey subsequently completed by Captain Greenvile Collins. Later, in 1695, Seller published an Atlas of County Maps, the Anglia Contracta. (Text extract from Antique Maps a Collectors Guide: Moreland C. & David Bannister. Publisher: Phaidon Christie's limited 1989. Antique Maps a Collectors Guide
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Another book recommendation for the novice antique map collector. One of the major problems confronting the collector is that of identifying the maps he collects. This is often difficult, for many maps lack the maker's name, the date, the publisher or other helpful detail. Owing to the practices of map publishers in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, attributions of a very large number of maps and their identification is today a matter for the expert. In this book Mr Tooley lists and describes nearly 500 maps in such detail as to facilitate identification. He gives the full title, maker's name-often a short biography-size, date, edition or re-issue, significant internal changes and variations. In addition, as an indispensable visual aid to identification the book contains more than 100 full-page reproductions of maps, six in full colour. . .
Above: Collectors Guide to Maps of The African Continent and Southern Africa. Tooley R.V. Publisher: Carta Press 1969
Size: 10" x 7.5" (255mm x 190mm). Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good.
See more antique maps Reference Books
Size: 10" x 7.5" (255mm x 190mm). Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good.
See more antique maps Reference Books
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The maps of Robert Morden (1611-1703) remain ever popular with collectors of English County Maps. Morden occupied premises in New Cheapside and Cornhill London, where he carried on business under the sign of "The Atlas" as a map, book seller and maker of instruments and globes. Not an outstanding cartographer his work was much critizised, but he produced intertesting sets of geographical playing cards, maps of various parts of the world and as shown below county maps for Camden's Britannica which he is best known for.
Above: Map of Rutlandshire "Comitatus Rotelandia Tabula Nova & Aucta" by Robert Morden c1722. A finely engraved and detailed map on hand laid paper. Decorative Cartouche. Published in Camden's Britannia by Abel Swale, Awnsham and John Churchill, London. This map comes from ''Camden's Britannia, Newly Translated into English: with large additions and improvements. Translated by Edmund Gibson, Editions 1695 & 1722''
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Bath - Aquaduct Bridge Claverton c1805. Aquatint and etching with original hand colouring. London, Publish'd 1805 by William Miller, Abermarle Street. Original print on watermarked J. Whatman 1801 wove paper. Superb aquatint by John Hill after the painter and draughtman John Claude Nattes. If you don't know the work of John Hill you really are missing something . . .
John Hill (1770-1849) began his career as an aquatint engraver of landscapes in his native London, publishing a series of views after the paintings of J.M.W. Turner and others. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1816 and continued engraving for the next 20 years, first in Philadelphia and later in New York. Hill is well known for his pair of New York City prints New York From Weehawk and the companion view New York from Heights near Brooklyn after views by William Guy Wall (1792-1864). He also did the engravings after views by Wall for the Hudson River Portfolio (1821-1825), a set of 20 hand-colored aquatint views along over 200 miles of the Hudson River, from New York City to the Adirondacks. Published by Henry J. Megarey in New York with text by John Agg, the Hudson River prints are considered amongst the finest produced in 19th-century America. Hill is also renowned for his 20 hand colored aquatint views after paintings by Joshua Shaw published between 1820 and 1821 in what is familiarly called The Landscape Album. His son and grandson, John William Hill and John Henry Hill, also became noted landscape painters. More on Aquaduct Bridge Claverton Bath.
