Now thru Sep. 12: Early hand colored maps, atlases and more at Old World Auctions
- by Thomas C. McKinney
Highlights from Old World Auctions' ongoing sale
Old World Auctions, the online-only auction house specializing in maps and cartography since 1977, is currently hosting its 169thauction comprising 823 lots of antique maps, plans, charts, globes, prints, engravings, manuscripts, atlases, and books. The sale is currently active and ends September 12. Though offerings range from the 15thto the 20thcenturies, much of the most valuable material airs on the earlier side. The following highlight lots show off a nice diversity of subjects, including the world (modern and ancient), Italy, the United States, Sri Lanka, and the Pacific. All are hand colored.
Though there are many to choose from, I’ve chosen three world maps from the 16thand 17thcentury maps to include here. Lot 17 is Ortelius’ third world map (not to be confused with a map of the Third World) and dated 1587. An oval world map, Ortelius’ work is a simplified version of Mercator’s map of 1569 and is estimated $6,000 to $7,500. Five lots later, we have lot 22, or John Speed’s “A New and Accurat Map of the World Drawne According to ye Truest Descriptions Latest Discoveries & Best Observations yt Have Beene Made by English or Strangers.” This one is dated 1651 but is known to have been published in 1662 by Roger Rea. It is one of the earliest published maps in English and is famous for being the first atlas map to show California as an island. Speed’s map is estimated $14,000 to $16,000. Our last world map highlight is of the ancient world as it was known in the Roman Empire: lot 47, Ortelius’ scarce Peutinger Table. Though the landmasses are distorted by the map’s format (four plates, each with two strip maps), the maps depict the imperial roads, posts, as well as the three most important cities—Rome, Constantinople, and Antioch—within the Empire stretching from Europe to North Africa to Asia as far as Sri Lanka. The Peutinger Table is estimated $5,000 to $6,000.
Representing the selection being offered of maps of the United States, lot 159 is Guillaume Delisle’s “Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississipi Dressee sur un Grand Nombre de Memoires Entrautres sur ceux de Mr. le Maire,” which is the first detailed map of the Gulf region and the Mississippi and also bears recognition for including the first appearance in print of the name Texas. Lot 159 is estimated $6,000 to $7,500.
One of the most decorative maps of Italy is also included in the sale, being Hondius or Jansson’s “Tabulae Italiae, Corsicae, Sardiniae, et Adjacentium Regnorum. Nova et Accurata Delineatio” from 1659. On all four sides, the map is surrounded by engravings of cities such Rome, Naples, Venice, and Flornce, of people both common and noble, of coats of arms, and of the volcanos Solfatara and Grotto del Cane. Old World Auctions states that the Hondius and Jansson editions of the map are very similar, and it is unclear which this is. The lot is unambiguously estimated $5,000 to $6,500.
The earliest item in this sale preview is lot 703, Ptolemy’s "Duodecima Asie Tabula," a map of Sri Lanka dated 1486. Ptolemy lived in the 2ndcentury AD, so his work over the centuries was edited and improved—this one by a Benedictine monk named Donnnus Nicolaus Germanus who served as the editor of the 1482 and 1486 editions of Cosmographia, the atlas from which this map came from. Lot 703 is estimated $5,500 to $7,000.
Our final preview item is also the last chronologically in the sale: lot 749. This is an Ortelian map of the Pacific Ocean dubbed "Maris Pacifici, (quod Vulgo Mar del Zur) cum Regionibus Circumiacentibus, Insulisque in Eodem Passim Sparsis, Novissima Descriptio" and dated 1589. Ortelius’ work has the distinction of being the first map ever printed devoted to the Pacific, and the second to label the Americas separately as North and South after Mercator’s 1538 world map. One of the higher priced items in the sale, it is estimated $8,000 to $10,000.
Old World Auctions’ sale 169 is currently ongoing online and ends September 12. The entire catalog is viewable here and bidding is conducted from the catalog. Registering and logging in prior to bidding is required.
Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Galileo Galilei. Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo tolemaico, e copernicano. Firenze, 1632
Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Saverio Manetti. Storia naturale degli uccelli. Firenze, 1771-76
Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Fortunato Depero. Depero futurista. Rovereto, 1927
Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Nicolas Visscher. Atlas minor sive totius orbis terrarum contracta delineat ex conatibus. Amsterdam, circa 1649-95
Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Andreas Vesalius. Anatomia. Addita nunc. Antiquorum Anatome. Venezia, 1604
Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Tristan Tzara and Salvador Dalì. Grains et Issues. Parigi, 1935
Bonhams, June 14-23: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presentation Gold Pocket Watch. Estimate: $20,000 - 30,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: Presentation Copy of the First Issue of the Lincoln Douglas Debates Signed by Abraham Lincoln in Pencil to a Sangamon County Illinois Republican. Estimate: $150,000 - 250,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: A Senate Resolution Signed in the Tense Days After the Union's Humiliating Defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run. Estimate: $80,000 - $120,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: Seven Passages to a Flight, an Artists Book with a Story Quilt by Faith Ringgold, the Publisher's Own Copy. Estimate: $80,000 - 120,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: A New Charter for Virginia, A Response to the First Armed Rebellion in the American Colonies. Estimate: $15,000 - 25,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: Earliest obtainable printing of the Bill of Rights. Estimate: $8,000 - 12,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: Edward Curtis Orotone. Estimate: $7,000 - 9,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: Owned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Butter or Dessert Plate from FDR's State Dinner Service. Estimate: $3,000 - 5,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: An Early Large-Format Plan of the City of Washington. Estimate: $1,500 - 2,500
Bonhams, June 14-23: Containing the First Map to Name the Hudson River. Estimate: $20,000 - 30,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: America's First Major Novelist, a Complete Chapter in Autograph Manuscript by James Fenimore Cooper. Estimate: $15,000 - 20,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: The Only Full-Length Book by Jefferson, with the Justly Famous Map. Estimate: $12,000 - 18,000
June 25, 2026
Doyle, June 25: Houdini's biography, boldly signed. $3,000 to $5,000.
Doyle, June 25: A volume from Abraham Lincoln's library, signed just before heading to Washington for his inauguration. $20,000 to $30,000.
Doyle, June 25: A very early Confederate recruiting manual belonging to the chief commissary in Lee's Army. $600 to $800.
Doyle, June 25: Rare hand-colored lithographs of the life of Napoleon. $20,000 to $30,000.
Doyle, June 25: The "Holster Atlas" of the American Revolution. $5,000 to $8,000.
Doyle, June 25: Jewish ceremonies in fine hand-colored engravings. $7,000 to $10,000.
Doyle, June 25: A very rare work on Turkish military costume. $1,000 to $1,500.
June 25, 2026
Doyle, June 25: The most important illustrated work on the Mexican-American War. $10,000 to $15,000.
Doyle, June 25: The finest illustrated book on Afghanistan. $10,000 to $15,000.
Doyle, June 25: Henry Justice Ford St. George rescues the Princess from the horrible Dragon. $2,000 to $3,000.
Doyle, June 25: A rare work of Prussian Army uniforms under Frederick William II, with exquisite hand-colored engravings. $800 to $1,200.
Doyle, June 25: Lenny Bruce typed letter signed to a Village bohemian during his obscenity trials, with a manuscript note and drawing. $300 to $500.
Doyle, June 25: Schiff's scarce Shanghai Sketchbook. $300 to $500.
Doyle, June 25: The first accurate published representation of the American flag. $2,000 to $4,000.
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 123. Celebrate 250 Years of Independence with Original Stars and Stripes (1790) Est. $1,400 - $1,700
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 20. Keulen's Spectacular Chart of the World Featuring California as an Island (1728) Est. $12,000 - $15,000
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 42. Schedel's Ancient World Map with Fantastic Humanoid Creatures (1493) Est. $14,000 - $17,000
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 591. Matching Set of 3 Stunning Globe Gores of Eastern Asia from Coronelli's 3.5 Foot Globe (1688) Est. $5,500 - $7,000
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 9. Speed's Popular World Map with Allegorical Representations of the Elements (1651) Est. $14,000 - $17,000
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 168. First Separate Map of Kansas & Nebraska Territories (1854) Est. $5,500 - $7,000
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 43. Only Macrobius Map with Britain Attached to Europe (1515) Est. $800 - $950
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 250. Rare Map of Boston and One of the Earliest Maps of the Revolutionary War (1775) Est. $2,000 - $2,300
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 79. Schenk's Uncommon Map Featuring Two Figurative Title Cartouches (1696) Est. $1,200 - $1,500
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 681. Hand-Colored Image of the Annunciation to the Shepherds (1502) Est. $800 - $950
Sotheby's Book Week 2 June - 9 July
Sotheby’s, June 25: Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations, on its 250th anniversary. $180,000 to $250,000.
Sotheby’s, June 17: Fontana, Lucio. Concetto Spaziale. 1967. Leporello en papier doré. Bel exemplaire signé. €4,000 to $€,000.
Sotheby’s, June 25: Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”. $150,000 to $200,000.
Sotheby’s, June 25: Washington, George (as First President). Washington decries “an ostentatious imitation, or mimickry of Royalty” in his Presidency. $250,000 to $500,000.
Sotheby’s, June 17: Lope de Vega. Rare manuscrit autographe signé de la préface dédicatoire de "El Cardenal de Belen" (le cardinal de Bethléem), pièce composée en 1610. €40,000 to €60,000.
