#antique maps

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Little bit of washi tape, decoupage antique map plus a scrap of fabric in the bottom. Add some vintage fashion stickers in the lid, and I've got myself a handy little box for my sewing stuff.

Plate 11 Italy - North

Sebastian Münster - Sea monsters. Sea Wonders and Strange Animals. 1570s edition Sebastian Münster (1489 - 1552) was one of the three best-known cartographers of the 16th century, along with Mercator and Ortelius. Münster's Geographia and Cosmographia Universalis are two of the most widely read books of the century. Editions of Ptolemy Münster's Geographia appeared between 1540 and 1552 with 48 illustrated woodcuts, supplementing the standard 27 maps with 21 new maps. These new maps, together with a separate one, depict the known continents and a number of masterpieces of regional cartographic development in Central Europe. Münster's main work, the Cosmographia, was published in nearly 30 editions, translated into 6 languages, between 1544 and 1578, and then republished from 1588 to 1628 in a revision by Sebastian Petri. The Cosmographia was as much a geographical as a historical and ethnographic description of the world. Find in it maps from the Geographia, added local maps and cities, with nearly 500 illustrations, the work of art became one of the most popular pictorial encyclopedias of the 16th century. It is one of the most unique cartographic specialties and provides a unique view of the Renaissance approach to the unknown lands beyond the civilized worlds.

OUR partners, Oculi Mundi, have launched their online store!

Now is your chance to purchase beautiful antique world and celestial maps, which have been specially commissioned by The Sunderland Collection from master printmaker Kristina Chan of Plaintiff Press.

200 numbered, embossed, hand-printed black and white editions (£350) and 20 numbered, embossed, hand-printed and hand- coloured editions (£3,200) of the Berlinghieri world map are available to purchase online.

Celestial and Terrestrial Spheres, c. 1725, made in Rouen, France, where the earthenware factories specialized in large polychrome sculptures.  These were made for the Château de Bois-Guilbert.  

The beautiful celestial sphere is decorated with zodiacal and mythological figures representing the constellations. The base shows the guardian deities of the four elements: Juno for air, Amphitrite for water, Ceres for earth, and Vulcan for fire.

The terrestrial sphere is based on engravings by Guillaume Delisle executed around 1700, including sea monsters.  The base has allegorical figures of the seasons: Flora for Spring, Ceres for Summer, Bacchus for Autumn, and Vulcan, the muscular fellow shown above, for Winter. (How is he both Fire and Winter?) The crocodile at the very bottom represents the American continent.

“Reader beware as you pass by. As you are now so once was I. As I am now so you will be. Therefore, prepare to follow me.” –Tombstone Inscription [Source: Pintrest] [Antique map of Owego, NY. [Source: Exhibit at the Tioga County Historical Society] This is a true story. It does not involve ghosts but it has potential. It takes place in Owego, NY, my hometown. Yes, it has the elements of a…

Cartographic Curiosities, our exhibit on maps, is on display through Friday. Here are some selections.

Photo 1: Desnos, Louis Charles. Nouvelle Carte de France Divisee en 90 Departements…Paris, 1792.

Louis Charles Desnos (1725-1805) created this map during the French Revolution and during the first year of the First French Republic. It divides France into ninety departments and shows roads available at the time.

Photos 2 and 3: Homann, Johann Baptist. Amplissimae Regionis Mississipi Seu Provinciae Ludovicianae… Nuremburg, ca. 1720.

Although printed later than de l’Isle’s seminal map of the American interior, this map by Johann Homann displays a number of incongruous features. While de l’Isle’s map was renowned for its depiction of the Mississippi and its tributaries, Homann’s map shows rivers that are substantially off course or totally fictitious. Perhaps most egregiously, Florida is shown as a chain of islands rather than a peninsula. 

Photo 4: Five maps created in the 1500s. Two city maps created by Georg Braun show Milan, Italy and Besançon, France. Both maps include heraldic shields and city inhabitants in traditional clothing. The three smaller maps were created by Giacomo Gastaldi and Giovanni Antonio Magini. They depict Central Asia and the Middle East.