Historic Maps from Cohen and Taliaferro

Item 12 is described as “the earliest obtainable plan of London.” It was published by Braun and Hogenberg in 1572. However, it is based on an earlier plan, possibly a 24-sheet one all but two of the sheets now lost, prepared between 1553 and 1559. The plan shows the spire on the old St. Paul's Church, which was destroyed in 1561. Most of the city is still within the old Roman walls, though there is some new growth in Westminster and Southwark. $13,500.

Reuben Ford's 1872 map of Austin, Texas, is described as “the best and most definitive for the city of the second half of the 19^th century.” Austin was formed from the wilderness in the 1830s as the newly independent Republic of Texas chose the site along the Colorado River as a nice place for a capital. A neat grid was laid out with Capitol Square in the middle. In 1872, Austin was still a neat square grid, though now with a substantial population. The Colorado River formed the southern boundary, Magnolia Avenue, now Martin Luther King Boulevard, the north. To the west, West Avenue was the border, to the east, East Avenue, now mostly subsumed by Interstate 35, the boundary. Open land to the north of Magnolia afforded ample room for the University of Texas, which would be formed a decade later. Streets running north-south today retain the names they had then, but east west streets, most with tree names such as Chestnut, Cherry, Walnut, Beach, Mesquite, Mulberry, Hickory, Pine, Cypress, and Live Oak, have given way to numbered street names. Item 46. $9,500.

Cohen & Taliaferro may be reached at 212-751-8135 or info@ctraremaps.com. Their website is found at www.ctraremaps.com.