Jonathan Longobardi writes: I recently came upon an 1776 map of New York Island that came from an atlas that accompanied the first edition of John Marshall’s The Life of George Washington published in 1807. It is truly a beautiful…
Earlier this week I made reference to the Miami International Map Fair; here’s a short news item about the Fair from the Latin American Herald Tribune. Previously: Miami International Map Fair 2009; Miami International Map Fair….
The 1699 map of North America by John Thornton that sold for something like £200,000 at auction last month is back on the market: the buyer, Daniel Crouch, is bringing the map to the Miami International Map Fair this weekend,…
An update on the story of the copy of Abel Buell’s 1784 map of North America that was auctioned off by the New Jersey Historical Society — to no small amount of controversy — last December. The map was…
A 1699 map of northeastern North America by John Thornton discovered in a house in rural Scotland (see previous entry) has been sold at auction for more than three times the expected price — the equivalent of about $320,000 U.S….
The New Jersey Historical Society is catching flak for auctioning off its copy of Abel Buell’s 1784 map of North America last month, the Star-Ledger reports. Apparently selling items to pay for operations — or, in the case of the…
Abel Buell’s 1784 New and Correct Map of North America (see previous entry) went for a lot more than expected at auction: $1.8 million. WestportNow takes a curious look at the auction by profiling the map dealer who lost the…
A one-of-a-kind map of northeastern North America created in 1699 by well-known cartographer John Thornton was discovered in a house in rural Scotland after the death of the house’s owner. The 68×80 cm vellum map, which shows details of Newfoundland fishing…
An extremely rare copy of Abel Buell’s New and Correct Map of North America (1784), one of only seven known to exist, is being auctioned by Christie’s on December 3. Buell’s map is the first map of the United…
A copy of Joan Blaeu’s Toneel der Steden, a 17th-century atlas of Dutch cities, was auctioned in Amsterdam for a record 330,000 euros on Saturday. Via Cartographie….
BBC Homes and Antiques has a piece on map collecting; unfortunately, like several other such articles I’ve read on the subject, it doesn’t really cohere and isn’t well-written at all. Via Jonathan Potter Ltd….
Kuntspedia has put online an electronic version of My Head Is a Map, a 1973 festschrift honouring map dealer R. V. Tooley, with essays on the history of map-making and map collecting. It’s also available for download as an e-book,…
George Washington’s personal copy of The Battle of Yorktown, a map made by Jean-Baptiste Gouvion 10 days after the battle in 1781, sold at auction earlier this month for $1.15 million. Via MapHist and Map History/History of Cartography….
A post on the Geographicus blog about using antique maps (and reproductions thereof) as decoration: “[T]he decorative qualities of fine maps are widely recognized by interior designers who appreciate their beauty and design flexibility. Depending on the individual map, presentation,…
Articles from The Map Collector, a quarterly magazine published between 1977 and 1996, are being reprinted on Kuntspedia. About 30 or so articles so far; I don’t know where to begin. Via MapHist….
A copy of a 16th-century atlas of England and Wales by Christopher Saxton is being auctioned at Southeby’s this week, the Yorkshire Post reports; the atlas is expected to fetch a quarter of a million dollars or so. For more…
The Geographicus blog has a few questions for people interested in getting into map collecting but who have no idea where to begin. (Me, I figure that if you have only a “vague idea of what [you] are interested in,”…
Kevin Brown of Geographicus writes, “I am a generalist antique map dealer specializing in rare maps from the 15th through the 19th centuries. As a sideline I have also started a map blog on cartographic anomalies, current map-related events, and…
The Telegraph reports that Jonathan Potter’s entire £3-million catalogue of antique maps is available for sale as Potter, 58, prepares for retirement. On MapHist, however, Potter clarifies the situation: “My intention is for my business to continue into the next…
A 75-year-old collector, Tomasz Niewodniczanski, has donated a portion of his collection to the Royal Castle in Warsaw (now a national museum). “The donation includes maps and plans of Polish towns and letters and manuscripts of Polish kings — from…
The sixteenth annual Miami International Map Fair takes place this weekend, on February 7 and 8, 2009, at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida; The Earth Times reprints the press release (previously)….
A 1612 map of New France drawn by Samuel de Champlain — briefly the subject of an investigation by Harvard curators who thought it might be a copy that went missing a few years ago — has fetched £130,000 at…
This is interesting: an article about map collecting in India. Sanjay Jain of RS Books and Prints, South Extension, that is famous for its collection of antique maps, says, “The love for maps is connected to the sense of discovery….
A sale of the largest private collection of Cook memorabilia includes, as one of its highlights, the Banks Map, depicting Australia and New Zealand. Printed in 1772 in a run of only 100 copies, the map was privately done while…
Remember those two Blaeu globes I was telling you about — the ones that belonged to the royal family of Liechtenstein and were being auctioned by Christie’s? They were bought, by a private collection, for €800,000. Via Map the Universe….
A digitized version of Willem and Joan Blaeu’s six-volume Toonneel des Aerdrycks, ofte Nieuwe Atlas (1659), produced for the city of Leiden, is available online from the Leiden Regional Archives; click here for the map viewer. Christie’s is auctioning two…
A few links to news stories to tide you over during the holidays: The Montreal Gazette on OpenStreetMap The Chicago Tribune on map collecting The Times rambles about the technology behind in-car navigation devices I’ll be off for about a…
The Rocky Mountain Map Fair takes place September 14-15 at the Denver Public Library (via GeoCarta); the Paris Map Fair takes place November 10 at the Hotel Ambassador (via Map the Universe)….
Canadian newspapers are reporting that the collection of Canadiana up for auction this week (see previous entry) went for the equivalent of $1.5 million (Canadian) — the Atlantic Neptune itself selling for the equivalent of around $900,000. (The article…
The rare book collection of the late Frank Streeter goes up for auction next Monday at Christie’s in New York; among the significant early Canadiana highlighted by this Canadian wire-service article about the auction is a copy of the…
The atlas up for auction I referred to earlier, combining Christopher Saxton’s surveys of England and Wales with Giovanni Battista Boazio’s maps of Drake’s voyages to the Americas, both from the late 16th century, fetched £669,600 at auction yesterday…
Speaking of 16th-century atlases, Sotheby’s is auctioning one off next month as part of the sale of an aristocrat’s library: The work of Yorkshire surveyor Christopher Saxton, printed between 1579 and 1590, is bound in one volume with a rare…
Though I don’t collect them per se, I’ve always been a big fan of old road maps, so I enjoyed reading Ephemera’s interview with Richard Horwitz — he’s a past president of the Road Map Collectors Association, he owns…
A Forbes article on the 10 most expensive books of 2006 (in the context of rare book auctions) makes this notable observation: “The top 10 list for 2006 includes a surprising number of atlases — five, including three versions…
A copy of the first accurate map of Scotland — a “rutter,” a book of sailing directions — is to be auctioned this week in Edinburgh, BBC News and The Scotsman report. The “Nicolay rutter” is a 1583 copy…
I briefly mentioned the Miami International Map Fair — which touts itself as “the number one map fair in the world,” a place for map collectors and dealers to do all kinds of business — last year, but after…
An article in yesterday’s New York Times about collecting old road maps and other assorted gas-station paraphernalia — “petroliana.” Profiles John Margolies, the co-author of Hitting the Road: The Art of the American Road Map, who gave a recent presentation…
The Antique Map Price Record is a CD-ROM-based reference tool that bills itself as more than just a listing of map prices (at auction, for example); it also contains reference images and bibilographical material, according to the publisher, who also…
Wow. The 1477 Cosmographia, which was expected to fetch £1-1½ million at auction yesterday, instead sold for £2.136 million to an unnamed collector (AP, Reuters). That’s more than any other antique map or atlas has ever gone for at…
The selling off of the late Lord Wardington’s map collection (see previous entry) continues. Next week, one of only two privately owned copies of the Cosmographia, the world’s first printed atlas — it was published in 1477, and based…
Via Map the Universe, an introductory article about map collecting from today’s edition — I guess by now it’d be yesterday’s edition — of the Sydney Morning Herald, using the local Antique Print Room as its backdrop and the earliest…
M. Krause writes, “I’m starting a small antique map collection and would like to keep track of it on my computer (Macintosh). Is there map collection software available that will keep track of my inventory? I have searched the web…
A giclée is a high-quality art print made on a special inkjet printer. It’s by no means exclusive to maps, but it’s a term worth remembering. I first learned about it in the context of a MapHist discussion of fakes,…
A follow-up article by Val Ross in today’s Globe and Mail about Library and Archives Canada’s attempt to bid on a copy of a map they already owned ascribes it to a lack of corporate memory and staff knowledge: “The…
Remember how Library and Archives Canada was getting set to bid on a 1562 world map by Forlani, one of the first with “Canada” on the map, that was expected to go for $200,000? Well, heh, funny story: it turns…
A 444-year-old map, one of the first with the name “Canada” on it, is up for auction at Christie’s next month, and Library and Archives Canada — the national archives and library — is deciding whether to bid on it….
For the opening of the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, today’s New York Times has a story about a collector and a very rare atlas: [William] Reese plans to show “The American Atlas: A Geographical Description of the Whole Continent…
The Batch Geocoding Blog has a comparison of the Google, MapQuest and Yahoo! mapping APIs; it’s a quick outline of what the author sees as the pros and cons of each. Via Very Spatial. Alex Stengel says MapMemo 2.5…
Roger Baskes, president of the International Map Collectors’ Society, responds to the Forbes Smiley business (covered here at great length) with an article on what collectors can do to deter map thieves. In the article, which first appeared in the…
I’m still up to my neck in Olympics nonsense, but I’ve got a few links to share with you that have been accumulating in my “post these soon” file. For all you tube map fanatics, a London Underground Map where…
Now that it’s available for the Mac, Macworld reviews Google Earth. Robert Gelb reviews Chandu Thota’s Programming MapPoint in .NET: “The bottom line is that if you are developing anything mapping related with Microsoft components, you gotta buy this book….
Our friend Tony Campbell has added a Latest News page to his awe-inspiring Map History/History of Cartography site, where he plans to bring news items to our attention. (Let the duel of Google Alerts commence!) Anyway, he’s just started, but…
A 700-volume, 60,000-map collection of atlases dating back to the 15th century is being auctioned by its late owner, the BBC reports, and is expected to fetch a total of £5 million. The collection was saved from a fire last…
Denver is going to be a busy place for map lovers this month. The International Map Collectors’ Society’s symposium takes place between September 18 and 23, and is held in conjunction with the Rocky Mountain Map Society’s antique map fair,…
An update. One of four surviving copies of Martin Waldseemuller’s 1507 map — the first to label the New World as “America” — went for £545,600 at auction at Christie’s today. See previous entry. It’s the most any map has…
One of four surviving copies of the first map to label the New World as “America” — a 1507 map by Martin Waldseemuller — is being auctioned by Christie’s in June. Better issue a share certificate on your firstborn, though:…
