Catalogues

Popular from the end of the seventeenth century in London and Paris, trade cards performed the dual functions of advertisements and maps, directing the public to the merchants’ stores – often with rambling descriptions to help locate the business in an era where formal street address numbers were rare. Trade cards were sufficiently small so that they could be carried in the gentleman’s pocket or lady’s purse.

Ten years in the making, this collection of cartographic ephemera – including advertisements, catalogues, manuscript correspondence, portraits, price lists, and trade cards – physically illustrates the struggles, exchanges and e orts of some of the leading gures of the map trade over the past five centuries.

The world’s obsession with discovering the exotic source of cinnamon and other elusive spices grew throughout the Roman era and into the medieval period, defining what it meant to be wealthy and powerful. From India to Europe the trade had a profound social, emotional and economic impact; giving rise to some of the first truly international trade routes, and shaping the structure of the world economy in a way that can still be felt today.

A magnificent portolan atlas by Battista Agnese in its original binding, inscribed and attributed to Agnese by the eminent bibliographer Henry Harisse.

An unique, 20 volume monumental grand composite atlas in magnificent condition, compiled by Pierre Jean le Mire (d1753), Canon of the Collegiate Church of Saint Vincent de Soignies in Hainaut.

The globes within these pages are far more than guides to geography and astronomy; they offer a glimpse into history. Observe how land, sea and stars shift over the course of 500 years, as human endeavour and ingenuity gradually uncovered more about the world around us.

Our first bilingual catalogue, and the first dedicated to China: The Middle Kingdom 中國. The catalogue presents an eclectic collection of maps, charts and books related to China spanning the thirteenth to twentieth centuries, reviving different perspectives of Chinese scholars and cartographers, Jesuit missionaries and representatives of the British Empire

The catalogue examines the role of pirates, privateers, buccaneers and freebooters in the tumultuous relationships between European countries as they expanded their trade and territories beyond their borders.

The eighteenth century baroque town plan. The collection comprises massive wall maps of Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Madrid, New York, Paris, Rome, St Petersburg and Venice.

Daniel Crouch Rare Books is pleased to present our catalogue of the Jason C. Hubbard Collection. Jason Hubbard bought his first map in 1971. Since then, he has built up a collection of material relating to Japan, including not only maps of Japan, but also maps of the continent and neighboring countries, sea charts, and books and travel accounts. Because of the considerable breadth of the collection, the catalogue is split into three parts: pre-1800 maps of Japan; post-1800 maps of Japan and sea charts; maps of Asia, China and Tartary, the East Indies, regional maps of Japan and books.

“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind” (Thomas Paine, ‘Common Sense’, 1775-1776). Welcome to catalogue XV, published to coincide with the first anniversary of the opening of our shop in New York; hence the distinct American flavour – or should we say flavor – with almost a third of the items pertaining to the New World.

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics”

A collection of English pocket globes from the long eighteenth century.

The earliest printed maps condensed and edited information from three “traditions” of map-making: Christian iconography, classical cartography, and contemporary charts.

In this catalogue we have selected 28 items – one for each of the states of the current European Union – that explore the history and idea of the European nation state. In his introductory essay Professor Colin Crouch argues that territorial sovereignty is rooted more in political expediency than in natural borders or cultural identity. Advances in mapmaking technologies not only preceded the birth of the modern European nation state, but were also necessary conditions for its creation.