Rare Maps of Curiosities - Miscellanea
Unique and fascinating antique maps.
Showing all 43 results
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Les Chutes du Niagara, Vue Generale; Niagara Falls, General View.
The most enticingly realistic depiction of Niagara Falls from the 19th century.
Place/Date: New York / 1852$2,000 Add to cart -
Les Chutes du Niagara. Fer a Cheval / Niagara Falls. The Horseshoe.
Sébron’s scarce and highly dramatic view of the Horseshoe Arch of Niagara Falls.
Place/Date: New York / 1852$2,000 Add to cart -
Messages Under The Ocean
A detailed look at the telegraph as the first global system of communication.
Cartographer(s): AnonymousPlace/Date: Not listed / 1939$375 Add to cart -
Historical Chart of Mankind – A Visual Record Of Man’s Racial, National and Cultural Progress
The original 1937 edition of Dr. Gluckmann’s pioneering visualization of human history.
Place/Date: Chicago / 1937$425 Add to cart -
Preliminary Geologic and Structural Map of the Lompoc and Guadalupe Quadrangles, California Including a Large Part of the Santa Maria Oil District.
A rare remnant from the early days of the California Oil Industry, from the collection of esteemed geologist Jorgen O. Nomland.
Place/Date: Washington, D.C. / 1907$4,800 Add to cart -
The Tables Turned – “You Sabe Him? Kealney Must Go!”
Political satire from one of San Francisco’s first antiquarian booksellers.
Cartographer(s): Isidor Nathan ChoynskiPlace/Date: San Francisco / ca. 1879$575 Add to cart -
Fortunes, Follies And Far-Out Ideas. A Look Back At The Personal Computer Era.
A period-specific broadside that maps the incredible journey of personal computing.
Place/Date: San Jose / ca. 1987$550 Add to cart -
[LA ROCHELLE] Il vero sito della Rocella hora occupata da heretici et Ribelli di sua Maestà Christianissima della Quale sono Assediati.
Den of the Templars: a rare and exciting plan of the great French port of La Rochelle.
Cartographer(s): Antonio LafreriPlace/Date: Rome / ca. 1573$8,500 Add to cart -
Angling in Troubled Waters. A Serio-Comic Map of Europe by Frederick W. Rose, Author of the “Octopus” Map of Europe.
A never-folded example of Frederick W. Rose’s iconic 1899 caricature map of Europe on a collision course.
Place/Date: London / 1899$3,200 Add to cart -
La Catastrophe du “Titanic”
An early illustrated account of the Titanic Disaster.
Cartographer(s): ExcelsiorPlace/Date: Paris / 17 April 1912$975 Add to cart -
STEAMERS ON THE NILE / THEWFIKIEH NAVIGATION COMPANY.
Gorgeous Victorian travel poster for the Egyptian Thewfikieh Navigation Company’s Nile Cruises.
Cartographer(s): Stafford & Co.Place/Date: Netherfield / ca. 1899$4,500 Add to cart -
Contro La Repressione e L’Imperialismo del Comunismo Sovietico.
Italian Anti-Communist Poster protesting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the arrest of peace activist and nuclear physicist, Andrey Sakharov.
Cartographer(s): Democrazia CristianaPlace/Date: Villa San Lucia, Frosinone / 1980$750 Add to cart -
Battle of the Nile, at 10 O’clock at Night, To the Right honorable Admiral Lord Nelson of the Nile…
Robert Dodd’s dramatic aquatint of Nelson’s Battle of the Nile.
Cartographer(s): Robert DoddPlace/Date: London / 1799$1,400 Add to cart -
[Political broadside] Solidarity with the People and Students of the DPR of Korea
A mixed-message piece of propaganda from the late stage of the Cold War.
Cartographer(s): The International Union of StudentsPlace/Date: Not listed / ca. 1987$550 Add to cart -
U.S. Navy Yard. At Mare Island, California
Early view of the U.S. Navy Yard at Mare Island, with Marin and Mount Tamalpais in the background.
Place/Date: San Francisco / ca. 1856$2,800 Add to cart -
Cunard R.M.S. Caronia / Great African Cruise 1950
A stunning and extremely rare advertisement for the Cunard Line’s 1950 cruise to Africa, with a stop in the new capital city of Tel Aviv.
Cartographer(s): D.E. BatesPlace/Date: England / 1949$2,800 Add to cart -
Das Jahr der Kirche [The Year of the Church]
A large-format German liturgical calendar in the Medieval style.
Cartographer(s): Johannes Stauda VerlagPlace/Date: Kassel / 1951$775 Add to cart -
Typus montis Aetnae ab authore observati
Athanasius Kircher’s glorious depiction of the 1637 eruption of Etna on Sicily – based on the author’s personal observation.
Cartographer(s): Athanasius KircherPlace/Date: Amsterdam / 1665$2,000 Add to cart -
Schema corporis Solaris
Athanasius Kircher’s stunning chart of the Sun.
Cartographer(s): Athanasius KircherPlace/Date: Amsterdam / 1665$2,000 Add to cart -
Typus Corporis Lunaris Panselini [First edition]
Athanasius Kircher’s pioneering map of the Moon.
Place/Date: Amsterdam / 1665$1,000 Add to cart -
Hayastan: hamaynagitakan Hayastan (Armenia: Encyclopedic Armenia)
A cartographic celebration of Armenia and Armenian culture.
Place/Date: Paris / 1933$2,600 Add to cart -
They Cheer When You Forget Your Maps
This whimsical World War II poster, promoting aviation safety practices with US Air Force pilots, is as charming as it is rare.
Place/Date: Not listed / ca. 1943$775 Add to cart -
Hammond’s Map of Mankind
A testimony to the deep and historical roots of racism, yet also evidence of slow but positive progress.
Place/Date: New York / 1946$200 Add to cart -
Globi coelestis in tabulas planas redacti Pars I, in qua longitudines stellarum fixarum… exhibentur.
1742 Northern Hemisphere Celestial Chart from Doppelmayr’s Atlas Coelestis.
Cartographer(s): Johann Gabriele DoppelmayrPlace/Date: Nuremberg / 1742$1,200 Add to cart -
[Set of Four Allegorical Mezzotints of the Continents] America. Europa. Africa. Asia.
A set of four allegorical mezzotints referencing the great continents of the world.
Cartographer(s): Johann Elias RidingerPlace/Date: Augsburg / ca. 1770$3,400 Add to cart -
PLANISFERO CELESTE. Contenente le principali stelle visibili ad occhino nudo.
A splendid mid-19th century Celestial Planisphere from Italy.
Cartographer(s): Ernesto Sergent-MarceauPlace/Date: Milan / 1850$700 Add to cart -
The Floor of the Oceans
Mapping the greatest mountain range on Earth: a 1970s map that was in many ways as revolutionary as Mercator’s first projection of the world.
Cartographer(s): Marie Tharp & Bruce Charles HeezenPlace/Date: Paris / 1976$950 Add to cart -
The Floor of the World Ocean
Richard Edes Harrison’s chart of the ocean floors: one of the first serious commercial attempts at underwater mapping.
Cartographer(s): Richard Edes HarrisonPlace/Date: New York / 1961$975 Add to cart -
Flag Map of California [Signed in pencil by W.J. Goodacre]
Goodacre’s wonderful flag map of California, signed by the mapmaker.
Cartographer(s): WJ GoodacrePlace/Date: Santa Barbara, CA / [copyright] 1936$875 Add to cart -
Globi coelestis in tabulas planas redacti descriptio, auctore R. P. Ignatio Gastone Pardies Societatis Jesu mathematico. Opus postumum
A complete set of six original color star charts by Jesuit scholar Ignace-Gaston Pardies: One of the rarest sets from the Golden Age of celestial cartography.
Cartographer(s): Ignace-Gaston PardiesPlace/Date: Paris / 1693$15,500 Add to cart -
Plan de Carthage & de ses ruines
One of the great North African tourist maps to grow out of the Victorian obsession with the Orient.
Cartographer(s): E. Cyrino & A. JacquemoudPlace/Date: Tunis & Paris / 1930$1,100 Add to cart -
Baseball. 1987 Edition
A 1987 baseball-themed pictorial map of the United States.
Cartographer(s): World ImpressionsPlace/Date: Foster City, CA / 1987$250 Add to cart -
Cassell’s Children’s Book of Knowledge Wonder Map of the World.
Thematic mapping for children: a fabulous circa 1930 world map depicting the history of exploration.
Cartographer(s): Cassell's Children's Book of KnowledgePlace/Date: London / ca. 1930$1,300 Add to cart -
When the Cable was Landed. Sunday, Dec. 14, 1902.
Album with 12 original silver-prints from the landing of the first Trans-Pacific telegraph cable in San Francisco.
Cartographer(s): G. HarringtonPlace/Date: San Francisco / 1902$1,400 Add to cart -
A THING WELL BEGUN IS HALF DONE. UNCLE SAM—“Finish the canal, McKinley, and make our national expansion complete in your first administration.”
William McKinley & Uncle Sam: a wonderful 1899 persuasive map advocating for the construction of the Nicaragua Canal.
Cartographer(s): Frederick Victor GillamPlace/Date: New York / 1899$975 Add to cart -
Bankoku Ichiran no Zu [Japanese Manuscript Map of the World]
The Privileged Outlook of the Shōgun: the manuscript map behind Koyano Ishun’s famous map of the world.
Cartographer(s): Koyano IshunPlace/Date: Osaka / ca. 1800$45,000 Add to cart -
They’ve got an invisible program to end an undeclared war backed by a silent majority.
A sharp anti-Vietnam War protest broadside that captured the zeitgeist of the time, matched the moment, and pulled no punches.
Cartographer(s): Robert GrossmanPlace/Date: New York City / 1970$1,450 Add to cart -
Passage System of the Great Pyramid of Giza in the Land of Egypt June – July 1909.
Uncovering the secrets of the Great Pyramid.
Cartographer(s): John and Morton EdgarPlace/Date: Glasgow / 1910$3,500 Add to cart -
RECONNAISSANCE OF THE WESTERN COAST OF THE UNITED STATES MIDDLE SHEET FROM SAN FRANCISCO TO UMPQUAH RIVER
Eminent geographer and historian George Davidson tracks the West Coast voyage of Sebastian Vizcaino.
Cartographer(s): Office of the Coast SurveyPlace/Date: Washington, D.C. / [1864] 1854$2,900 Add to cart -
[Sutro Baths] ON THE SHORE OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN
A monumental and vivacious rendition of San Francisco’s magnificent Sutro Baths.
Cartographer(s): AnonymousPlace/Date: San Francisco / 1896$18,000 Add to cart -
Wandkarte der Teppichgebiete
A remarkable visualization of well-known carpet regions in the Middle East and Central Asia, produced at the height of the ‘Persian rug craze’.
Cartographer(s): Verlag der "Teppich-Börse"Place/Date: Vienna / ca. 1931$1,350 Add to cart -
Erythraei Sive Rubri Maris Periplus, olim ab Arriano descriptus, nunc vero ab Abrah. Orelio ex eodem delineatus
Illustrating a mysterious ancient text: fascinating Ortelius map mixing classical mythology and contemporary exploration.
Cartographer(s): Abraham OrteliusPlace/Date: Antwerp / 1624$1,200 Add to cart -
The South Isles of Orkney, with the Rocks, Tides, Soundings &c. Surveyed and Navigated by Murdoch Mackenzie
A landmark survey of the South Orkneys featuring pioneering work in the use of triangulation.
Cartographer(s): Murdoch MackenziePlace/Date: Edinburgh (?) / 1750$1,600 Add to cart
Archived
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A computer GLOSSARY or, coming to terms with the data processing machine.
The dawn of personal computing: IBM’s first computer glossary.
Place/Date: Not listed / 1968Read more -
A Graphical History Of Gold
A visually enticing 1930s graphical history of the global gold industry.
Cartographer(s): Barrett McCullagh & Co.Place/Date: Toronto / ca. 1935Read more -
Vestiges of Assyria. Sheet 3rd being a map of the country included in the angle formed by the River Tigris & The Upper Zab showing the disposition of the various ancient sites in the vicinity of Nineveh
Felix Jones’ third map in the Vestiges of Assyria series, in which the densely inhabited flood plain surrounding the capitals of Nineveh and Nimrud has been depicted.
Place/Date: London / 1855Read more -
Vestiges of Assyria. Sheet lst an Ichnographic Sketch of the remains of ancient Nineveh with the enceinte of the modern Mosul.
Felix Jones’s map of Nineveh: the first modern cartographic visualization of Assyria’s great capital.
Place/Date: London / 1855Read more -
Masjid Haram / Great Mosque of Mecca
A highly decorative and deeply symbolic plan of the Holy Precinct in Mecca following a late 19th-century renovation.
Cartographer(s): Fahmy/Sultani OrderPlace/Date: Mecca / [early 20th c.?] 1893Read more -
The Liberation Bulletin of Phillipine Internment Camp No:I at Santo Tomas University
Rare WWII P.O.W. Ephemera, from the estate of a Santo Tomas survivor. Complete with an internment camp plan.
Cartographer(s): Peter E. RichardsPlace/Date: Not listed / 1945Read more -
Aztec Calendar – Easy Map – full color – History and Symbolism
A vivacious color depiction of the Aztec calendar with extensive explanatory notes.
Cartographer(s): Adrian Garcia ValadesPlace/Date: New York / 1992Read more -
La Tour de 300 mètres, construite en 300 vers
A remarkable 1889 thematic calligram of the Eiffel Tour.
Place/Date: Paris / 1886Read more -
Voyage Autour du Monde / Round the World. 1891.
One of the greatest travel posters of the Belle Époque.
Place/Date: Paris / 1891Read more -
[Vietnamese Maps of North America: Mexico, Canada, USA]
Three curious maps of North America made in South Vietnam.
Cartographer(s): Saigon MoiPlace/Date: Saigon / ca. 1965Read more -
Paper-Making Places in Present-Day Japan. East & West.
Charting Japan’s craft papermakers: a 4-map bilingual set.
Cartographer(s): MingeikanPlace/Date: Tokyo / 1960Read more -
Yale University
A colorful 1977 bird’s-eye plan of Yale University.
Cartographer(s): Yale UniversityPlace/Date: New Haven / 1977Read more -
The San Francisco Call. New Era Edition.
A gorgeous 1897 lithograph of San Francisco’s ornate Call Building, once the tallest building west of the Mississippi.
Cartographer(s): H. S. Crocker CompanyPlace/Date: San Francisco / 1897Read more -
Three Centuries Of Great Music
New York Philharmonic thematic map tracing the history of classical music from 1650 to 1950.
Place/Date: New York / 1953Read more -
[Data Visualization] Le Pétrole Dans Le Monde.
Striking 1956 thematic map of the global petroleum industry — rare first edition published before the Suez Crisis.
Cartographer(s): Union des Chambres Syndicales du PétrolePlace/Date: Paris / 1956Read more -
Carte de la Lune Dressee Par L’Abee Th. Moreux…
A comprehensive visual journey across the visible surface of the moon.
Cartographer(s): Theophile MoreauxPlace/Date: Paris / ca. 1949Read more -
[Great European Visit Memorial Flight Game]
A rare and splendid 1925 Japanese board game map celebrating a triumph of early aviation.
Cartographer(s): The Asahi ShimbunPlace/Date: Osaka / 1925Read more -
Tribal Areas of California
Informative 1988 map of distribution of Native American tribes in California.
Cartographer(s): Pacific Western TradersPlace/Date: Folsom, CA / 1988Read more -
[Republic of Texas] Phelps & Ensign’s Travellers’ Guide, and Map of the United States, containing the roads, distances, steam boat and canal routes &c.
Phelps & Ensign’s 1841 map of the United States: the embodiment of early American enterprise and patriotism.
Place/Date: Brooklyn, NY / 1841Read more -
Armour Food Source Map
From farm to table: mapping sources of food in the United States.
Cartographer(s): Armour & CompanyPlace/Date: Chicago / [1960] 1994Read more -
Plan of Ancient Troy
When artifact becomes cartifact — locally-published and detailed archaeological plan of Ancient Troy.
Cartographer(s): AYLAPlace/Date: Çanakkale / 1964Read more -
View of the World from 9th Avenue
Original run example of Saul Steinberger’s iconic illustration of the world as seen from a typical New Yorker’s perspective.
Cartographer(s): Saul SteinbergPlace/Date: New York / 1976Read more -
Expedition Citroen Centre-Asie 3eme Mission G.-M. Haardt – L. Audouin-Dubreuil
A remarkable collection of materials related to the first automobile crossing of Asia: the famous Citroën Central Asia Expedition of 1931-32, from Beruit to Peking.
Place/Date: Paris / 1933Read more -
Carte ethnographique de l’Epire du Nord en 1913.
Rare – a highly sophisticated, large format ethnographic map of the region of Northern Epirus, disputed frontier land.
Place/Date: Thessaloniki / 1913Read more -
[Map for the Blind] Afrika…Hergestellt im Lehrmittel-Verlag der Marburger Blindenstudienanstalt
World War II German relief map of Africa for the blind, with Arabia and the Middle East.
Cartographer(s): Lehrmittel-Verlag; Marburg Institute for the BlindPlace/Date: Marburg / 1941Read more -
[Title in Russian] Russian Empire in the 18th Century (European Section)
Educating school children during the Cold War: Soviet historical wall map of the Russian Empire in the 18th century.
Cartographer(s): General Directorate of Geodesy and Cartography (USSR)Place/Date: Moscow / 1967Read more -
Main Logic Board Schematic (Apple II)
Original Apple II logic board schematic.
Cartographer(s): Apple Computer, Inc.Place/Date: Cupertino / ca. 1977Read more -
Myths, Maps, and Men. Merrill Lynch Salutes the Year of the Moon
Iconic double hemisphere pictorial map of the moon — among the most desired Moon Landing commemorations ever created.
Cartographer(s): Michael RamusPlace/Date: New York / ca. 1969Read more -
Mappa geographiae naturalis sive tabella synoptica / inventa et adornata à Matth. Seuttero. S. Caes. Maj. geogr. Aug.
Unusual and fascinating look at mapmaking in the 18th century
Cartographer(s): Matthäus SeutterPlace/Date: Augsburg / 1730Read more -
Europa Prima Pars Terrae Forma Virginis.
Bünting’s famous depiction of Europe as a Queen
Cartographer(s): Heinrich BüntingPlace/Date: Magdeburg / ca. 1581Read more -
Europa Prima Pars Terrae In Forma Virginis.
Striking example of Bünting’s famous depiction of Europe as a Queen.
Cartographer(s): Heinrich BüntingPlace/Date: Leipzig / ca. 1581Read more
