For people who own an old map
Have a map we should be printing?
Most of this catalogue came out of public archives — the Library of Congress, NOAA, the Leventhal Center, the Rijksmuseum. The maps we cannot get that way are the interesting ones: the county surveyed once in 1878, the harbour chart nobody digitised, the plan a railway company printed to sell lots. Those are in attics and flat files, not archives.
If you own one, send a photograph. If it is out of copyright and worth printing, we will restore it and add it to the shop — and you get the full-resolution restored file of your own map to keep, and a named credit on its product page if you want one.
Two things this page is not
We do not buy originals
We are a printing business. Everything here is a new archival print from a restored scan, and we have never sold an antique. Buying them would mean authenticating, storing, insuring and — the part most of the trade is quiet about — satisfying ourselves about who owned the thing before. We are not equipped for any of it.
We do not tell you what it is worth
Not because we are being careful with you, but because nobody honestly can from a photograph. Value lives in the paper, the plate mark, the watermark and the state of the printing — all of which need the object in hand. Anyone who gives you a number off a picture is guessing.
If it turns out to be valuable
We will tell you, and then point you somewhere better
Occasionally somebody sends a photograph of something genuinely valuable without knowing it. If that happens we will say so plainly, and we will not make you an offer — we would be the worst-informed bidder in the room and you would deserve better.
What to do instead: look for a dealer who belongs to the ABAA (Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America) or ILAB (the international league). Both publish searchable member directories and both bind members to a code of conduct, which matters more in this trade than it might sound. Expect a real dealer to insist on examining the map before committing to a price, and to explain how they dated and authenticated it. Any of that is a good sign. A firm offer sight-unseen is not.
Tell us about it
Nothing here is binding on either of us. We reply within one business day.
Questions
Do you buy original antique maps?
No. We are a printing business, not a dealer: everything on this site is a new archival print made from a restored scan, and we say so on every page. Buying originals would mean authenticating them, storing them, insuring them and satisfying ourselves about who owned them before — four jobs we do not do. If what you have is valuable, you deserve someone who does all four properly, and there is a note below on how to find one.
Will you tell me what mine is worth?
We cannot, and we would be doing you a disservice if we guessed. Valuing an antique map takes physical examination — paper, chain lines, watermark, plate mark, the state of the plate — and every serious dealer will tell you the same thing: a value cannot be established from a photograph. We will happily tell you what the map IS, if we recognise it, and that is often the useful half.
So what do you actually want?
The picture. If a map is out of copyright and interesting, and you are happy for it to be scanned, we will restore it and add it to the catalogue — and you get the full-resolution restored file of your own map to keep, and a named credit on its product page if you want one. That is the whole exchange. Your map stays yours and never leaves your possession unless you want it to.
What makes a map interesting to you?
Somewhere specific. 161 prints here are already the obvious sheets from the big public archives, and the things we cannot get that way are the ones worth having: a county surveyed once, a harbour chart nobody digitised, a town plan, a promotional map a railway printed, an estate survey. Local beats famous almost every time.
Does it have to be old?
Old enough to be out of copyright, which in the United States generally means published before 1930, and for anything after that it depends on how it was published and by whom. Government work is often free of restriction whatever its date. Tell us what you have and we will check properly rather than guess — and if the answer is no, we will say no.
What if I only have a photograph of it?
A photograph of an old map is still the photographer's photograph, even when the map itself is out of copyright. If you took it, that is yours to give. If you found it online, it is not. We check before printing anything, and we would rather disappoint you at this stage than at any later one.
Do I have to send you the map?
No, and for most submissions we would rather you did not. Phone photographs are enough to tell whether something is worth pursuing. If it turns out to be worth a proper scan we will talk about how, and postage and insurance would be ours, not yours.
What happens to my photographs?
They are stored privately, used only to assess the submission, and deleted within twelve months. Nothing of yours is published anywhere without your written agreement, and a credit only appears if you want one.
Looking for a map we do not stock, rather than offering one? That is the custom request page. Buying for a project or a client? Trade accounts.