Category — Map Auctions

As mentioned in an earlier post, an early map of Canada by Samuel de Champlain, described by Sotheby’s Books and Manuscripts Catherine Slowther as “The driving force behind the initial success of French attempts at gaining a foothold in America,” was slated for the auction block this past November 13.

Champlain’s 1612 map of Eastern Canada fetched an incredible $286,570 CDN, three times its estimated price.

The map was drawn from Champlain’s personal observations, accumulated from more than twenty voyages to Canada and New England.

Sotheby’s auction house in London said the work sold to a private collector, but did not give the home country of the new owner.

Read the full story on Champlain’s 1612 Map of Canada at CBC and the Toronto Star.

[tags]antique map auction, samuel de champlain, map of new france, map of canada, historic maps[/tags]

A 1612 map of Canada (then “New France”) by Samuel de Champlain is to be auctioned by Southeby’s in England next month. The map is billed by Sotheby’s as “perhaps the most important single map” in Canadian history. Harvard University experts have determined that the particular copy of the rare antique map is not the copy discovered to be missing from Harvard’s rare-book library in 2005, presumed stolen by E. Forbes Smiley. There was some concern by Harvard that the map in question may have been the stolen copy owned by Harvard.

The antique map of Canada by Samuel de Champlain is expected to fetch $80,000 for its undisclosed owner.

Related news items:

• Sotheby’s London Will Sell Perhaps The Most Important Single Map In The History Of Canada
• Harvard eyes 1612 Canada map in auction
• Rare map of Canada under scrutiny after Harvard thefts
• Champlain map cleared for auction
• Champlain map ready for auction 

[tags]antique maps, samuel de champlain, new france, antique map auctions, antique map of canada, E. Forbes Smiley[/tags]

A Great Lakes map, a re-strike originally made by the Jesuit priest Francesco Bressani in 1657 and recreated around 1900, sold for $5,040 in an online auction.

Only two examples of the original map survive. The original map was printed on two sheets and covered the St. Lawrence River in addition to the Great Lakes; the 1900 copy consists of only the left (or western) sheet.

Bressani, who served in Quebec in the 1640s, was captured and tortured by the Iroquois, then survived and returned to Italy, where he created the map. He lost three fingers on his right hand during his captivity and torture, but compiled the map drawing based on Jesuit sources and likely, with influence of another mapmaker of the time, Nicolas Sanson.

It is a highly accurate map of the eastern Great Lakes and Ottowa River regions. In it, Georgian Bay is described in great detail. Lake Erie is placed at a higher latitude than on the map of the same region created by Sanson. Father Bressani embellished his work with several drawings (remarkable considering his missing fingers); these included depictions of the Indians, one showing a converted family praying.

Read the press release about the Great Lakes map as well as other antique maps sold at the auction.

[tags]antique maps, antique map auctions, famous cartographers[/tags]

Old maps, including maps of London from 1840, spotted by a volunteer in a stock room at an Oxfam shop in England, went for £2,000 (approx. $4,000USD) at a charity auction the other day.

The star lot was a plan of London and its environs dating from 1840, showing the boundaries of the cities of London and Westminster, the metropolitan borough and parishes and distances of principal roads from the general post office.

The document was expected to fetch up to £300 but sold for £1,200.

Read the full story here.

[tags]Oxfam Maps, map auctions, London maps[/tags]

Two antique globes, one of the sky, one of the earth, by famous cartographer Willem Janszoon Blaeu, have been sold for EUR 800,000 at auction at Christie’s in Amsterdam. Bought for a private collection in Europe, Christie’s says this is the largest sum ever paid for a work of art in the Netherlands, with the exception of paintings.

You can read the full story from Radio Netherlands.

     Update:

Apparently the Blaeu Globes went to a Dutch collector for more than double the estimated price. The reason for auctioning the globes? Liechtenstein royal Prince Hans Adam stated:

“There is just not enough room to either exhibit all those works of art in museums or to use them for decoration purposes in our private apartments.”

You can read more about the auction in this article from Hello Magazine.

[tags]antiques, antique globes, antique auctions [/tags]

The “Complete Map of Taiwan Province of the Great Qing Dynasty“, a 259 year old map of Taiwan from the Qing Dynasty, will go up for auction at the Beijing Poly International Auction House in Beijing on November 30, with a reserve price of 3 million yuan (US$400,000).

The map, completed in AD 1748 on the orders of the Chinese emperor, was drawn using the brushwork of traditional Chinese paintings. More details can be found in this article.