Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books: December 8, 2022 Auction Highlights



Lot 5: Sebastian Münster, Novae Insulae XXVI Nova Tabula, Basel, 1552. Estimate $2,500 to $3,500.

Our winter maps auction will offer a strong variety of material including collectible examples by stalwart publishers Ortelius, Blaeu, Hondius, Speed, and Munster. Plate books and graphics include works by Audubon, and a scarce volume of scenic lithographs of St. Petersburg, capital of Russia at the time.

Cartographic highlights are Egbert Viele’s Water Map of New York City from 1865, describing Manhattan’s long-vanished original streams and wetlands; and an important wall map of the United States from 1818 by John Melish — the first accurately coalesced representation of the nation from coast to coast and a signifier to the potential for settlement in the western reaches of the continent.


Lot 16: John Melish, Map of the United States with the Contiguous British & Spanish Possessions, Philadelphia, 1818. Estimate $20,000 to $30,000.
Lot 24: Charles Varle, Wiliam Warner & Andrew Hanna, Plan of the City of Environs of Baltimore, Baltimore, 1801. Estimate $8,000 to $12,000.

Related Reading



Lot 142: Sebastian Münster & Hans Holbein, Typus Cosmographicus Universales, Basel, 1532. Estimate $7,000 to $10,000.

Lot 195: Friedrich Justin Bertuch, Bilderbuch für Kinder, Weimar, 1792, 1798, 1802, 1805, 1822. Estimate $1,200 to $1,800.
Lot 266: Hughson Hawley, Pennsylvania Station, New York City, Philadelphia, 1910. Estimate $2,500 to $3,500.
Lot 225: John James Audubon, Black Bellied Darter, Plate CCCXVI, hand-colored aquatint & engraved plate, London, 1836. Estimate $18,000 to $22,000.

Get Notifications for Auction Day