Neatline Antique Maps

One of the earliest obtainable maps on the open market to name ‘America.’ Why are Servetus Edition maps so rare? Well, when Servetus was burned at the stake for blasphemy, the pyre was composed of his own books, manuscripts, and maps. Ouch!

Land grants, failed endeavors, and a fabulously wealthy and eccentric stage actor: the story of North Berkeley’s Peralta Park.

A masterfully-composed 1939 color panorama of San Francisco and its newly built bridges.

A pioneering map of California, in which the entire state is mapped in mineralogical and geological terms for the first time. Published in San Francisco in 1891 by the California State Mining Bureau.

This sweeping panoramic view of San Francisco, published in the year 1855, captures the city as it settles into its new urban standing as the financial center of the American West. The artist, Flessenden Nott Otis, drew the view from a point on Rincon Hill, at the time San Francisco’s most stylish residential area. It is hard to imagine, but if we were to take a picture from the same spot today, standing at about the center would be Salesforce Tower.

Gorgeous and richly-detailed Late Renaissance bird’s-eye-view of Florence. Key points: 1. This skillfully executed Lafreri-school view of Florence documents the city in the Late Renaissance; the Uffizi has just been completed, the Ponte Vecchio is in the process of being converted to a locus of goldsmiths and jewelers.... 2. It depicts many structures which were subsequently destroyed during World War II. 3. It is an optimal example of the great advances in axonometric urban mapping achieved in this period.

In 1846, Parisian artist Cicéri produced some of the earliest obtainable views of the historical port of #Singapore. His stunning etchings were adapted from original maps that he had compiled while on d’Urville’s great voyage to circumnavigate the globe.

A scarce and exceptionally well-preserved copy of one of the most notable cases of cartographic intelligentsia produced in the race for the American West, complete with exciting period annotations by French prospectors.

A monumental and vivacious rendition of San Francisco’s magnificent Sutro Baths. Here an extremely rare variant.

Vincenzo Maria Coronelli’s America Settentrionale is one of the important early renditions of North America and a cornerstone in any serious map collection focusing on America. Coronelli’s official positions in Venice and at the French royal court in Paris afforded him special access to reports and manuscript materials. The map features one of the first mentions of the name ‘Chicago’ on a printed map, copious notes of discovery, information on Native American settlements, a...nd more. The geography is complemented by attractive Venetian Baroque embellishments, including a splendid allegorical title cartouche.

A rare and evocative World War I map of the Western Front on the eve of peace, with provenance to an important American officer. This incredible chart tells the story of how a single battle line held the entire world in suspense. Produced at the end of The Great War, the armistice has been signed, bringing fighting to a halt. But the conditions of surrender had not yet been agreed upon (the Treaty of Versailles was not signed until some seven months later). As such, the map captures the desperate tension between armistice and treaty.

De Jode’s 1593 map of Scandinavia is one of the most sophisticated Renaissance maps of Northern Europe. The isolated northern fringes of Scandinavia remained a frontier that challenged mapmakers for centuries, making this a fascinating collector's item.

This is Vadianus’ 1534 Ptolemaic World Map: the modern world depicted in the most ancient style. Key points: 1. Produced shortly after the first discoveries of the New World, this map includes one of the earliest full depictions of South America and a gigantic Cuba instead of North America.... 2. Neatline’s example is a first state in superlative condition. 3. The map features many of the classic elements of Ptolemaic cartography, including: the Mountains of the Moon and the Dragon’s Tail model of the Malay Peninsula. 4. And yet, it is a true product of the Renaissance: constantly questioning assumptions and promulgating new ones.

Samuel Augustus Mitchell’s seminal map of Texas, Oregon, and California was a decisive instrument in the great move West, and one of the most influential maps in the history of American expansion. It was one of the first commercial large-format pocket-maps of the regions beyond the Mississippi and features highly detailed routes for heading west. As such, it became an indispensable tool for the many immigrants, pioneers, and prospectors heading that way, including Mormon leader Brigham Young himself. The map was produced during a rapidly-changing and exciting window of American history, characterized by new knowledge and shifting borders, exemplified by the territorial claims of Texas that extended both north and west, including Santa Fe.

If you're interested in an example of what contemporary 17th century hand-color on maps looked like, check out this spectacular and uniform set of 4 De Wit maps, heightened in gold.

The Island of California in the year 1622. This is the earliest known published image of the greatest of all cartographic myths.

A beautifully preserved example of the most decorative and famous map of Iceland ever produced with an additional hand-drawn sea-monster on the verso. Dramatic features such as sea-monsters were a well-known decorative element in 16th and 17th century maps, but only very few have taken it to the level of Ortelius’ Islandia. The map is famous for them; and this is not just a recent phenomenon. Indeed, the monsters constituted a crucial way of marketing and promoting the map: They invigorate the imagination today imagine the impact they had five centuries ago!

Last day of the Paris Virtual Map Fair and still lots of great maps available!

A remarkable visualization of well-known carpet regions in the Middle East and Central Asia, produced at the height of the ‘Persian rug craze’. This stunning and unusual thematic map focuses on the distribution of rug-production in the Middle East and Central Asia. It extends from Turkey and Egypt in the west, to the borders of India, China, and Tibet in the east. In doing so, it encompasses an array of cultures in which hand-woven colorful carpets constitute a timeless and ubiquitous mode of decoration.

The beating heart of Dutch East India: a rare and beautiful second state of Gerard van Keulen’s visually overwhelming map of Java. Published in 1753.

Last Day! San Francisco Map Fair (Virtual). Check it out:

Extremely rare War of 1812 wall map - an early American masterpiece.

A remarkable detail amidst the ruins of post-earthquake San Francisco: the Dewey Monument Victory Statue.

The San Francisco Virtual Map is live for 2 more days! Come see hundreds of maps from dealers from all over the world. The fair also features several interesting talks and virtual events.

From Sugar Refinery to the Headquarters of Airbnb: an emblem of industrial San Francisco and the depiction of the lost landscape of Mission Bay.

The power of private enterprise in America: a rare and important map of the San Francisco Bay Tide Lands, showcasing ambitions behind the city’s development.

You probably knew that Ponce de León, Pánfilo de Narváez, and Hernando de Soto were all scruple-lacking conquistadors, but did you also know that they all feature in my write-up of this 1597 map of Florida and the Gulf Coast?

We did a deep dive into this incredible portolan-style chart of the Indian Ocean, representing geographical knowledge transformed into dominion and profit. Check out the coastlines: it was designed to be laid out on a table and spun to suit whatever stretch of coast one was navigating at the time!

Anatomy of an inset, part 1: The inset to the right of the title cartouche shows parts of Japan and Hokkaido (Yedso), along with two of the Kuril Islands, Iturup (Staten landt), and Urup (Compagnies landt). Hokkaido is the second largest island of Japan, and appears on early maps as Ezo, Yezo, Yedso, Yesso, and other similar variations. To understand why Hokkaido has been given its own inset, we look back to late 16th century Jesuit activity in the Far East. Father Xavier, an... early missionary in China, related stories that silver mines were to be found in Japan. Spanish traders heard similar rumors, which became sufficiently widespread that the great cartographer Abraham Ortelius placed an ‘island of silver’ (Isla de Plata) above Japan on his 1589 Maris Pacifici map of the Pacific Ocean. The allure of silver endured, and fifty years after the publication of Maris Pacifici the Dutch East India Company sponsored two voyages of exploration in the region, first by Abel Tasman in 1639, then by Maarten Vries in 1643. This inset map reflects the new information recorded by Vries, who sailed through the straight that was later named after him between the islands of Iturup and Urup, and into the Sea of Okhotsk. He later died at sea near Manila from disease after an unsuccessful attempt to invade the Philippines. In the end, the greatest cartographic legacy of the Vries expedition was an error made concerning the Kurili Island of Urup, which he believed to be continental. The island, which Vries named Comagnies landt after his employer the Dutch East India Company, is thus left as an open coastline on our map. Vries perceived this land to be the westernmost region of America, a concept that was widely adopted in the 17th and 18th centuries, for example by Vincenzo Coronelli in his Mare Del Sud detto altrimenti Mare Pacifico.

The communications lifeline of the British Caribbean: an unrecorded map of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company’s Ships to the West Indies.

Bunting's famous 16th century woodcut world map with an unexplained Australian landmass, the Mountains of the Moon, and Europe shaped like a queen.

A fascinating, highly decorative 1843 German map of the Holy Land with a large inset of Jerusalem and a dedication to 'His Highness the Most Serene Prince and Lord Maximilian of Bavaria.'

You never know what you're going to find when you open up an antique map. Here is John C. Frémont and Charles Preuss’s landmark map of 1848, which to our great surprise has a hand-written note on the back stating that it was presented by Frémont’s father-in-law, Senator Thomas Hart Benton, to a friend on July 15th, 1849.

Stanford's 1873 map of the U.S. with detailed geography of the West.

A wonderful early document of Gold Rush California, this is the earliest obtainable map of San Francisco.