For the summer of 2010, London map seller Jonathan Potter Ltd., has issued the very appropriately titled catalogue A Selection of Antique Maps from Jonathan Potter. This is a collection both wide and deep. It includes maps from all over the world, or of the whole world, along with various related and ephemeral items, such as globes, catalogues of maps, and even a game. There is no shortage of material to choose from, there being 500 items included.
Potter begins by pointing to the map exhibition currently on display at the British Library, noting, "...all the maps displayed at the British Library are priceless. However, at Jonathan Potter Limited all our maps are priced and many are just as interesting!" Now, unlike the unpriced copies at the British Library, any of these can be yours. Here are some suggestions.
We will start at the beginning, both for maps and for this catalogue. Item 1 is a map of the world from Hartmann Schedel's famed Nuremberg Chronicle. This is sort of a last look at the world as it had been known for a couple of millennia. It is the classical trapezoidal Ptolemaic look at the globe. It was published in 1493, the year Columbus first returned with news of the New World. However, in this map, there is still no New World, no America. Europe is recognizable, central Asia and northern Africa reasonably accurate. Southern Africa is strange, western Asia, like the Americas, nonexistent, and the Indian Ocean is sealed in by a bordering landmass that runs from southern Africa to western Asia. All of this would be making some vast changes, and soon, as Columbus and other explorers told of the lands they found. Priced at £14,000 (British pounds, or roughly $21,340 in U.S. currency).
A century later, in 1588, Sebastian Petri was publishing a later edition of Sebastian Munster's Cosmographia, which contained this map of the world. Now all of the major landmasses save for Australia are depicted in their entirety. Still, North America is a very wide continent, as big as Asia, while South America is an amorphously shaped blob. Added is a vast southern continent taking up almost a quarter of the globe. One look at this huge imaginary land helps us to understand why Captain Cook's discovery two centuries later, that there was no vast southern continent, was such a major finding. Item 3. £4,000 (US $6,097).
Here is a world map that is surprising by western eyes, we being so used to seeing the world from our own vantage point. It is the Chikyu Bankoku Hozu (Japanese World Map). At the center of this map is not Europe or America, but Japan, small though it is. It was published in 1853, just as Commodore Perry was forcing Japan to open its doors to the world. While the outlines of the continents are reasonably accurate, the Japanese weren't quite up on political geography, missing the fact that the British had ceded Oregon to America seven years earlier. £3,200 (US $4,880).
High Bids Win Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines and Machine Manuals December 24 to January 9
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Ellis Smith Prints unsigned. 20” by 16”.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: United typothetae of America presidents. Pictures of 37 UTA presidents 46th annual convention United typothetae of America Cincinnati 1932.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec signed Paper Impressionism Art Prints. MayMilton 9 1/2” by 13” Reine de Joie 9 1/2” by 13”.
High Bids Win Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines and Machine Manuals December 24 to January 9
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Aberle’ Ballet editions. 108th triumph, American season spring and summer 1944.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Puss ‘n Boots. 1994 Charles Perrult All four are signed by Andreas Deja
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Specimen book of type faces. Job composition department, Philadelphia gazette publishing company .
High Bids Win Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines and Machine Manuals December 24 to January 9
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: An exhibit of printed books, Bridwell library.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur Court By Mark Twain 1889.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: 1963 Philadelphia Eagles official program.
High Bids Win Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines and Machine Manuals December 24 to January 9
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: 8 - Esquire the magazine for men 1954.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: The American printer, July 1910.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Leaves of grass 1855 by Walt Whitman.
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RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
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Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing
Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing
Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
Case Antiques 2025 Winter Fine Art & Antiques Auction January 25-26, 2025
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: 1861 Civil War Personal Flag. $12,000 to $14,000.
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Armory Show 1913 Exhibition Poster. $8,000 to $9,000.
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Abraham Lincoln Signed Appointment, 1863. $4,000 to $5,000.
Case Antiques 2025 Winter Fine Art & Antiques Auction January 25-26, 2025
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1st Edition, Signed. $3,800 to $4,200.
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, 1st Edition, Signed. $3,200 to $3,400.
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Winston Churchill & Bernard Baruch Signed Letters Plus Photo. $1,400 to $1,600.
Case Antiques 2025 Winter Fine Art & Antiques Auction January 25-26, 2025
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Mississippi Civil War Ambrotype, Dr. Bisland Shields with Saber and Hat. $1,400 to $1,600.
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Custom 19th C. Lord Byron Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, 4 Vols w/ Over 350 Prints Incl. Ex-Joshua Reynolds. $1,200 to $1,400.
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Four NASA Lunar Orbiter Survey Photos, 1966; Maestlin G Crater; Apollo. $600 to $700.
Case Antiques 2025 Winter Fine Art & Antiques Auction January 25-26, 2025
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Three Margaret Mitchell Signed Books; Association Copies. $1,000 to $1,200.
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Jimmie Rodgers Signed & Dated Photograph plus Record, Framed. $1,000 to $1,200.
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Edward VIII Signed Letter Autograph. $500 to $600.
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: William Shakespeare. The Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare, 1960. 7,210 USD
Sotheby’s: Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol, First Edition, 1843. 17,500 USD
Sotheby’s: William Golding. Lord of the Flies, First Edition, 1954. 5,400 USD
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: Lewis Carroll. Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Inscribed First Edition, 1872. 25,000 USD
Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit, First Edition, 1937. 12,000 USD
Sotheby’s: John Milton. Paradise Lost, 1759. 5,400 USD