Collecting maps and atlases need not be the expensive hobby or pastime of the wealthy. It is still possible to find real bargains in a world where prices of decorative maps and old atlases seem to be out of reach of the ordinary buyer. I prefer to buy and sell maps and atlases from the late 18th century to the early 20th century: they serve as a unique record of a changing world, testimony to conflicts, change, exploration and innovation.
I stock maps on a range of subjects and of a variety of places. These include military maps, railway maps, Ordnance Survey maps, British town plans, maps in slipcases and in boards, and maps of London from the 18th century to the 1940s. I also have a number of nineteenth century atlases, plus guides and geographies including some from the eighteenth century.
Current stock includes an extensive range of maps of London from the late 18th century ; 19th century marine charts covering the waters around Britain; 19th century maps of Russia; maps of France; 19th century railway maps, Bradshaw's city plans of many of the major European tourist destinations; maps of India and maps from both world wars including trench maps from the First World War.
For latest lists of maps on a range of topics please contact me via the links on my home page. I will try to respond to any individual requests for help in searching for maps.
You can find many of these maps and atlases for sale on line at www.antiqbook.com
New stock includes:
Stanford’s Geological Atlas of Great Britain edited by H B Woodward and published by Stanford, London 1913. The 4th edition. In stiff blue cloth covered boards with the title gold-stamped to the front. Size 20 by 13 cm. With 37 double - page maps and 16 full-page plates, a folding colour-coded index and 214 pages of text. Full title includes the words “with plates of characteristic fossils preceded by a description of the geological structure of Great Britain and its counties; and of the features observable along the principal lines of railway”. Small ink signature to front endpaper. Maps VG and atlas also in Vg condition. £110
Latest Map of Indian Railways published by Nirdosh Publishers, Jangpura Market Delhi. No date but circa 1975. On paper size 112 by 86 cm. Colour. A large detailed map with a colour-coded key to the various companies and the lines. This shows the railways of the Northern; Eastern; North Eastern; North East Frontier; Central; Western; Southern and South Eastern lines, and also shows their different gauges (broad gauge, metre gauge and narrow gauge) plus information on the Head Offices of the Railway Companies. A poster-size map that folds into card covers. Title is within a panel edged with images of locomotives. Includes a large table of distances between cities. Previous owner’s name to the front cover and minor colour offsetting to the margins outside the borders of the map. Some archival quality clear tape repair to reverse. Has been folded. Overall Good to VG condition. £65
Map of Malaysia, or carte de la Malaisie by Vuillemin, printed by Fosset, Paris circa 1850. On paper size 30 by 22 cm. With some hand-colouring of boundaries. The map is of present day Indonesia, Borneo and the Philippines, though it also includes Malaya and the northern tip of Australia, or Nouvelle Holland. A detailed map. Good to VG condition. £30
Bradshaw’s Map of Europe; showing all the Railways in Operation at the Seat of War, published by Adams, London 1859. On folding paper size 58 b y 57 cm. Uncoloured. With a key to railways in operation and to railways in the course of construction; another key to 30 states and territories; a third key to the size of the various towns, cities, forts, steam tracks, springs and spas, plus an explanation of the scales used in the map. The wear referred to in the title appears to have been to conflict between Prussia and Denmark. Folds into stiff card covers. VG. £130
Tallis Map of China and Burmah 1851. Map drawn and engraved by Rapkin, with six small vignettes of local scenes around the borders of the map by Wrey and Allen. On paper size 33 by 26 cm. Scale 300 miles to the inch. The vignettes include a view of Hong Kong harbour and another of the British factories in Canton. Hand-coloured. framed and glazed by a Hong Kong gallery (1986) in a sympathetic wood frame size 54 by 46 cm. Vg condition. £185
Tallis Map of the state of Victoria or Port Philip, drawn and engraved by Rapkin, published by Tallis London 1851. On paper size 35 by 25 cm. Scale approximately 45 miles to the inch. Hand coloured borders and boundaries. With five vignettes by Warren of local scenes and people including a view of Melbourne. Minor edge nibbles outside the margins of the map but overall VG condition. £55
Map of The Island and Forts of St. Helena, published by Fisher, London 1824. On paper size 25 by 20 cm. Scale one inch to the mile. Uncoloured. Heights are shown by shading or hachuring in a symbolic manner. A detailed map, which includes James Fort and Town, Buonapartes Residence (sic.), other settlements, houses, roads and features such as Major Pierrie’s and Miss Mason’s House, as well as the homes of other residents shown by name, a compass rose and various offshore islands. Some dulling to sea areas and top edge cropped but otherwise in Good to VG condition. £115
The Atlas Volume from The Cyclopaedia or Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and Literature by Abraham Rees, published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, London 1820. In a half leather binding size 28 by 25 cm. With a decorated leather spine with a gold-stamped title, marbled boards and endpapers. An ancient and modern atlas, with 22 double page historical maps and 40 double page maps of the early 19th century world. These later maps are almost all by Arrowsmith with the others by Cooke. All are uncoloured. They include a couple of world maps (planisphere maps and a Mercator projection), plus maps of the nations of Europe, three of Africa (including an unusual one of the Cape of Good Hope), five of the Americas (including a map of the United States, an Arrowsmith map from 1805 with just a few settlements west of the Mississippi but details of the native American peoples), a chart of the Pacific dated 1808 with fascinating details of the coastlines of Asia and the Americas and fair amount of detail on New Holland and New Zealand, a detailed map or chart of the East Indies, a map of the Empire of Japan and maps of China, Hindostan, Persia and Arabia. On rather odd feature, probably a mid- 19th century addition, pasted to the back free endpapers, is a double page chart that shows clock faces that give the time in cities all over the world relative to Greenwich: it also shows the time in about 100 places in Britain relative to Greenwich, a relic of the time before standard Greenwich mean time. Most maps are from the period 1805 to 1807 and are in good to VG condition. There is some foxing to the reverse of maps and occasional spots around the margins. Original spine expertly relaid. Good to VG overall. £345