Map

Just being old is no longer enough. True, most of the collectable maps that change hands in the market are of some considerable age. Many were printed by hand using techniques which changed little between the 1470s and 1830s. Tim Bryars reports...

A selection of highlights appearing at upcoming auctions.

A selection of highlights that dealers are taking to upcoming fairs.

A large oil on panel map by MacDonald Gill celebrating the presence of stationer WH Smith on the British high street in the 1920s was hammered down at £50,000 in Gloucestershire.

A very rare panorama of 17th century London depicting the city skyline in the wake of the Great Fire of 1666 has sold at auction for £90,000.

A 1627, Ulm first of Johannes Kepler’s 'Tabulae Rudolphinae…', an important astronomical work named in honour of the then Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, sold for SKr350,000 (£30,535) on December 7.

A rare 11th century Portolan chart on vellum will be offered by the Il Ponte auction house in a sale of books and manuscripts in Milan on January 22.

Founder remembered as anniversary sale sheds light on evolution of the Narnia Chronicles

In a major cooperative move, next summer’s series of London book and map fairs has been aligned to run in the same four-day stretch.

Kim Jeffery, who with husband George runs Etc Fairs, described by one exhibitor as “the Stock Exchange of bookselling”, is upbeat about her upcoming book fair in Bloomsbury.

In a journey starting with the Great Fire and taking in the 1980s, dealer Tim Bryars explores the collecting market for London maps

Antiques Trade Gazette can confirm that Chiswick Auctions has proof of good title for a rare group of maps and charts, which the auction house sold last month.

Early maps and charts, previously owned by a Brazilian banker convicted of money laundering, surfaced for sale at Chiswick Auctions last week.

Daniel Crouch Rare Books sold this huge 25ft (7.6m) wide ‘Atlas of the City of New York – Borough of Manhattan’ map at the Winter Antiques Show last month.