Rare Book Monthly

Articles - April - 2008 Issue

A Perspective on Maps and their Place in the Heavens

The 1513 Tabula Terre Nove by Waldseemuller  [offered by Martayan Lan]

The 1513 Tabula Terre Nove by Waldseemuller [offered by Martayan Lan]


By Bruce McKinney

The April Comet

When people think about books and look online they seem at first glance to be a single universe. Fiction and non-fiction exist side by side as do books just published and those printed five hundred years ago. Illustrated books, childrens books, illustrated material, autobiography, books on ants and others on elephants are all one click away. This is because online listing sites tend to arrange material alphabetically by author or title and sort it in ascending or descending price order. The difference between an original printing and a reproduction of the Gutenberg Bible therefore will be price and the distinctions sorted out by the listing-reader. These differences are of course extraordinary but for many, perhaps even most, works on paper these variations are less apparent and therefore more difficult to understand. Such difficult to understand but important distinctions coupled with the public's collecting interest, are the principal drivers for the development of specialist dealers, the polar opposite of the generalist bookseller upon which the book business has been built. The generalist can be said to know the distance from Palm Beach to London, the specialist the depth and temperature of the water. In the map field, a narrow category and the subject of this month's Comet, there is plenty of room for both perspectives because while there are always collectors seeking the Everests there are more that climb the Shawangunks, the Catskills and the Piedmonts and feel well-compensated if they find an item of personal interest. The very existance of AE is evidence of this broad based interest for here, while we are focused on rare and collectible works on paper, we understand the fun is unearthing the right item whether it is $40 or $40,000.

Within the world of collectible works on paper one of the strongest and perhaps even the strongest segment is cartography [it's a map if its says Esso, cartography if it costs more than $1,000]. This field manages to win the trifecta because it's often interesting and attractive to both the collector and their spouse for whom the collection is history and attractive presentation. A library of course will do this too but libraries do not announce themselves so well as maps [and images for that matter] that can tell their story when framed and mounted on walls. Maps also gain from the multiple communities that offer them. Some maps are independent productions but many others begin life as an image in an atlas or book and hence are bought and sold in the world of books. Even as recently as the 1950's Howes' Usiana accorded little additional value to books with maps. Content, maps and images had parity. Today maps live on the other side of the rainbow, a pricing trend that Graham Arader, the exceptional map dealer, recently explained this way:
"Map prices have increased at a 400% rate per decade over the past 40 years. With Smiley [the Edward Scissorhands of library map plundering now in jail], others out of the picture and map librarians more diligent and protective, the artificial liquidity in exceptional maps evident the past 10 years, is passing and prices are rising. Looking ahead I expect as much as a 30 fold increase over the next 10 years in the value of important maps as scarcity increases. Even pedestrian material will do well. Images are in their moment."

Rare Book Monthly

  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
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