a map book with a new outlook:

At virtually every fair, map dealers are asked "Can you recommend a good book that deals with collecting antique maps?"

Most collectors have seen the excellent standard books that deal conventionally with collecting antique maps: books listing and illustrating the "important" maps of different areas of the world, and scholarly books that deal with the history of cartography.

Collecting Old Maps is different!

Collecting Old Maps is not just an update; it is an entirely new book written specifically for the collector of antique maps, with information for all levels of collectors. Many other books on collecting antique maps more or less follow the format of R.V. Tooley's Maps and Mapmakers, a germinal book many decades ago, that listed the "important" maps, emphasizing those of the British Isles. Collecting Old Maps breaks with that tradition to present a whole new approach to antique maps and to the data and concepts needed by today's antique map collectors. Filled with data, reference information, and hundreds of illustrations, the book will also be useful to advanced collectors, dealers, and institutional curators. It will introduce a beginner to this fascinating hobby with all the information needed to get started and make sense of many difficult aspects of collecting. Price, condition, identifying, buying and selling at auction, conservation and repair, are but some of the topics covered. A unique and valuable book for anyone interested in antique maps, Collecting Old Maps is international in scope. Hardbound, 8 1/2 x 11 inches, 328 pages, printed on acid-free paper. Nine chapters, 8 appendices, index. Over 250 black and white photographs, drawings and color plates. Full color dust jacket. Published January 1998. Now in its 4th printing! ISBN 0-9649000-6-8

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Illustrated profusely

Part I
Collecting Old Maps
1. Before you begin... General considerations of collecting maps.
2. Names of map parts... Identifies, describes and illustrates the different parts of a map; the types of cartouches and other elements found on a map.
3. Kinds of maps... Illustrates many of the different types of maps one finds, how to tell them apart.
4. How maps look... Different printing processes are explained and we learn how to differentiate between engravings, lithographs and other processes that were used to make maps. Many detailed illustrations.
5. Facsimiles, forgeries and other copies... Using details from actual "fakes" the reader is taught how to look at maps to detect forgeries. Many fakes are illustrated in detail.
6. Condition and conservation... Typical damage that one finds on old maps is described and illustrated in this chapter. How to judge and describe condition and, using actual examples, how to judge if a map can or should undergo restoration.
7. On building a map collection... Building a collection. How to buy and how to sell. Auctions and dealers. Pitfalls. What to expect from dealers and auctions.
8. Prices:The market speaks... Perhaps the most vexing topic of all. How prices are determined and what goes into pricing a map. How to judge for yourself.

Part II
An introduction to the diversity of printed maps
9. A survey of printed maps. A series of 130 large photographs of old maps from 1483 to 1945 arranged chronologically.  Maps from a 1483 woodblock to a 1945 silk escape map document the broad evolution of maps and provide a splendid  visual overview of the different appearance of maps over five centuries of cartographic evolution. All the maps illustrated in this section appear on the market, although a few are, indeed, very expensive. The unique chronological arrangement of this large number of maps permits one to appreciate stylistic changes over a 450 year period; this is like a time-lapse movie of map development and is not found elsewhere.

Part III
Appendices
A. The makers of maps... A dictionary of map makers, concentrating on those most often encountered, hence most useful to the ordinary collector. Gives basic information about hundreds of mapmakers, including dates.
B. The map collector's reference library... A bibliography of useful reference books (both in and out of print), magazines and other information aids such as the internet.
C. Roman numerals... A hundred years of Roman numerals.
D. Mapwords: a foreign language dictionary... A basic foreign-language dictionary to help translate foreign words on and about maps. A valuable aid when you're looking at a map in another language - Dutch, French, German, Latin, English.
E. The substance of maps: Paper and vellum... A technical chapter on the structure and composition of vellum and different types of papers. Many illustrations showing watermarks, paper types and vellum.
F. Chemistry for collectors: This section covers acids, buffers, pH, and what they all mean. A crash course in acid-base chemistry. What is acid and why is it bad? What to do about it?
G. Useful addresses and sources... A selection of important addresses worldwide: map societies; trade organizations, map fairs, book fairs.
H. Glossary... A list of technical terms found in this book, and a brief definition of each.

Index