The Commonwealth of Dominica. The Nature Island. Wai’tu kubuli, which, in the language of the indigenous Kalinago Indians, translates as ‘Tall is her body’. This collection, assembled over two generations, portrays Dominica through one hundred maps, prints, books, manuscripts, and ephemera.
Three thousand years of history, geography, religion, and politics in one thousand maps, plans, and books. There exists a deep-rooted affinity between the history of cartography and the history of the Holy Land. The region served as the subject of the very first survey recorded in writing (Joshua 18:4) and continued to play a prominent role in cartography throughout the following millennia. Please note that shipping is not included. Costs are: £25 to the UK, £35 to Europe, and £45 to the rest of the world.
“There is nothing in the world of fine books quite like the first discovery of Audubon. The giant energy of the man, and his power of achievement and accomplishment, give to him something of the epical force of a Walt Whitman or a Herman Melville. … Audubon is the greatest of bird painters; he belongs to American history, and as a writer he described things that human eyes will never see again” (Sitwell)
“Every hand’s a winner!” - A catalogue of 57 decks of playing cards from c1630-1991, including a pack unknown until 2016, a gorgeous set of embroidered silk brocade cards, Ganjifa cards, and several English seventeenth century decks.
Our latest catalogue offers a very select group of the earliest, the most important, and fiendishly rare, maps, atlases, and travel accounts, which are the first printed attempts by European commentators and adventurers, to depict their world, and the emerging outline of the Americas.
‘From Sea to Shining Sea’, the Petros G. Pelos Collection of exceptionally rare first-hand printed and manuscript travel accounts, atlases, portfolios, and governmental proclamations. Offered together as a single entity, these 100 items not only reflect the emerging shape of the United States, from the end of the Revolutionary War to the beginning of the Civil War, but were fundamentally instrumental in creating its identity.
The William B. Ginsberg collection of World Maps; an epitome of the most beautiful, powerful, and influential cartographical images of the 15th and 16th centuries. The earliest printed maps condensed and edited information from three “traditions” of map-making: Christian iconography, classical cartography, and contemporary charts. Ginsberg’s collection encapsulates the subtle metamorphosis of this amalgam of art and science, myth and metaphor, discovery and design, in nineteen maps: from the world map of the ‘Rudimentum novitiorum’ (1475), the earliest printed map, in magnificent original hand-colour; to the largest Italian world map published in the 16th century, Giuseppe Rosaccio’s ‘Universale Descrittione di Tuto il Mondo’ (1657).
Playing cards is, in many ways, a hallmark of civilisation. Like maps and money, a deck of cards is a way of representing an entire value system and an understanding of human nature on paper. A game of cards embodies the inherent unpredictability of life, allowing us to grapple with the uncertainties, directing them towards our own ends. At the card table, when the hands are dealt, all men are temporarily equal; it is how they choose to play those cards that determines who will draw ahead. The players are required to practice both strategic and emotional discipline, and one’s reaction to a bad hand or a sudden windfall can reveal much about his temperament and priorities. As in cards, so in life.
A new catalogue focusing on celestial cartography, a selection of items that show how humans have charted the heavens and marked time by the light of the stars for over 500 years.
We are delighted to present our latest catalogue: Hollar - comprising a single-owner collection of works by the master etcher: from maps, topographical views, and architectural drawings, to portraits, records of the latest fashion, and studies of animals.
A new catalogue focusing on London, including a selection of Frost Fair prints, large-scale plans of London boroughs, and the first printed depiction of Elizabeth I as queen.
Yeakell and Gardner’s landmark map of Sussex
Rare separately issued map of England and Wales
