About Antique Map Prints

Antique Map Prints started with one map: the 1664 Blaeu world map, bought as a print from a marketplace and delivered as a soft, yellow scan with a fold line running through Africa. The map itself, at the Library of Congress, is 6,782 pixels wide and sharp enough to read the names of the winds. The difference between those two things is this store.

What we do

We work only from maps whose archive states, on the item itself, that the scan is free to reuse — the Library of Congress Geography & Map Division, NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey, the US Geological Survey, the Leventhal Map Center at Boston Public Library, the Rijksmuseum, the Cleveland Museum of Art. Every product page shows that record: the archive, the link, the rights statement, the cartographer, the year and the date we verified it.

Then we restore the scan by hand at full resolution: crop the scanner bed, balance the colour cast and levels while keeping the paper tone, take out the library stamp, the dust and the fold shadows, and sharpen gently. We never redraw or repaint anything the engraver made. A map is offered only in the sizes its scan can carry at 200 dots per inch or better, and only in proportions that keep the whole sheet — cartouche, borders and all — on the print.

What we don’t do

We don’t sell originals, and we never describe a print as one. We don’t use fake countdown timers or “3 left in stock” on made-to-order goods. We don’t collect more of your data than an order needs, and we don’t hand your email to anyone.

How the store runs

Prints are made to order by our print partner in the country of delivery — US orders print in the US — on archival matte paper with pigment inks, framed to order, and shipped tracked. Payment is by Stripe on a hosted page; we never see your card. If a print arrives damaged or wrong, the claim form gets a free replacement on its way within a working day.

The store is run by its owner, who answers info@antiquemapprints.com personally.

Informational purposes only, no warranties, not professional advice.