The Map Room

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 map and I would love to have it framed and hanging on my wall someday. So here’s the thing, I know nothing about maps. I liked it so I bought it ($35 can’t go wrong, right?). It definitely is in need of repair as it has yellowed over the years. I live in Manhattan but am of modest means, to say the least. Do you know of anyone who might be interested in either restoring the map gratis (I know, I know, but I have to ask) or at a relatively low cost? I’m trying to save money for my wedding next summer so funds aren’t exactly plentiful.

I don’t think free map restoration is likely for a map in a private collection, but I thought it would be worth sharing his question to see what the options are for this sort of thing.

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, where he hopes to sell it for more than twice that price. Via MapHist.

(The Winnipeg-based Hudson’s Bay Company Archives tried to acquire the map at auction, but was outbid. Fun fact: I worked there as a summer student in 1996, under the supervision of the manager quoted in that article. Small world.)

Previously: 1699 Thornton Map Auctioned; 1699 Thornton Map Discovered, Will Be Auctioned.

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 sold to a private collector, David Rubenstein, who is now loaning the map to the Library of Congress for display. (According to Rubenstein’s Wikipedia entry, this is not the first time he’s done this sort of thing.) Thanks to Reid Hardman for the link.

Previously: NJ Historical Society Criticized for Selling Map; Buell’s 1784 Map Fetches $1.8 Million; Rare 1784 Map of the U.S. Being Auctioned Next Month.

Update: More from the Washington Post — part of Rubenstein’s agreement with the Library is that they’re to put the map on display for at least five years.

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. (or around £200,000).

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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….  •  Continue reading this entry.

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….  •  Continue reading this entry.

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,…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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….  •  Continue reading this entry.

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,…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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….  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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,”…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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)….  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

A profile of map collector Clarence Kylander — it seems that a lot of map collectors are doctors or retired doctors; I wonder why that is….  •  Continue reading this entry.

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….  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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….  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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)….  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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,…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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….  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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….  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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,…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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…  •  Continue reading this entry.

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:…  •  Continue reading this entry.