Discover Sotheby’s selection of maps and botanicals – perfect for home, gallery or workspace. We offer antique and vintage maps and botanicals, plus engravings, book plates, woodblocks and more.

Maps & Botanicals

A highly decorative map of South America for Linschoten's "Itinerario," a manual for sailing to the East Indies.<ul><li>Jan Huygen van Linschoten (Dutch).</li><li>Engraved by Arnold Florent van Langeren (Dutch).</li><li>Amsterdam: n.p., c. 1596.</li><li>Titles, in Latin and Dutch, are within strapwork cartouches.</li><li>In the sea are a finely engraved compass rose, sea monsters and galleons.</li><li>Vignettes of natives and animals based on de Bry.</li></ul>

Dutch Map of South America

Robert John Thornton (English, 1768–1837).<ul><li>Aquatint and mezzotint, printed in color and finished by hand, heightened with gum arabic from The Temple of Flora.</li><li>Thornton was a prolific medical author and became a doctor of medicine at St Andrews University and licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians; however, he is best remembered for his great botanical publication The Temple of Flora, composed of 30 folio botanical plates. For these remarkable illustrations, he engaged the services of the leading artists and engravers of his day: Sir William Beechey, James Opie, Henry Raeburn, John Russell, Philip Reinagle and others as painters: Francesco Bartolozzi, Richard Earlom and John Landseer, however, most of the images were painted by Peter Charles Henderson and Philip Reinagle.</li><li>These botanical illustrations are unique as they were the first flower prints with landscape backgrounds, depicting the natural habitat of the plant.</li><li>The life-size flowers stand out dramatically and the whole effect is startlingly modern.</li><li>Framed and glazed.</li></ul>

The Tulips

Scarce Dutch double-hemisphere colored world map.<ul><li>Gerard and Leonard Valk (Dutch).</li><li>Amsterdam: Gerard Valk, c. 1720.</li><li>The decorative borders have allegorical scenes representing the Four Seasons with polar projections in the cusps.</li></ul> An uncommon world map drawn by Gerard Valk (1652-1726) and his son Leonard (1675-1746). In the Western hemisphere, California is an island; a northwest passage is suggested by a "Mer Glaciale" leading from Hudson Bay towards the Strait of Anian; a "Terra Incognita" fills the North Pacific; and the partial coastline of New Zealand appears, based on the mapping of Abel Tasman in 1642. In the Eastern hemisphere the semi-mythical "Eso" (Hokkaido) is connected to mainland Asia, with a separate "Compagnies Land" adjacent; Australia is depicted without an east coast, with the suggestion that Cape York is connected to New Guinea and Tasmania is shown as a distant island.

Dutch Double-Hemisphere World Map

A British railway <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/maps-&amp;-botanicals" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">map</a> of India by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Colonel%20Henry%20Ravenshaw%20Thuillier&amp;tab=objects" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Colonel Henry Ravenshaw Thuillier</a>.<ul><li>Colonel Henry Ravenshaw Thuillier (English).</li><li>Railway Map of India. Railways Brought up to October 1895. </li><li>Scale: 1 Inch = 48 miles or 1:3,041,280.</li><li>Calcutta: Published under the direction of Colonel H. Thuillier, R.E., Surveyor General of India,&nbsp;October 1890.</li><li>Photozincograph map.</li><li>Partly printed in color, with additional hand-coloring.</li><li>Dissected into 50 sheets and mounted on linen as issued.</li><li>This work is presented framed.</li></ul>&nbsp;A comprehensive railway map of British India, including the subcontinent and Burma, also displaying the main road networks, navigable canals, steamship routes, and telegraph connections across the peninsular. This publication by the Survey of India Office includes a useful ‘References’ key giving information on the differing gauges in use across the region, and a color code highlighting the lands under direct British administration in pink, ‘Tributary States’ in yellow and ‘Independent and Foreign Possessions’ in Green. A notice records the price for color as ‘Five Rupees’, as against ‘Four Rupees’ without. Prepared under the direction of Colonel Henry Ravenshaw Thuillier, who as his father before him, served as Surveyor General of India from 1887 to 1895. Here Baluchistan is shown as an enclave of the British Raj. This strategically important territory lies in modern-day Pakistan, and is situated around the natural fort town of Quetta located high in the Chiltan mountains. It came under direct British rule in 1876, securing the vital Bolan Pass though which British troops under the command of General Michael Biddulph passed during the Second Anglo-Afghan War of 1878 to 1880. The railway connecting the remote province to the Raj proper was built through the pass in 1887. The map also contains an early route highlighted in crayon showing a journey by sea to Bombay, and thence via Daman to the Indian Princely State of Baroda. Other towns underlined in crayon include Kurrachee, Lingsugur, Raichur, and Hyderabad.

Railway Map of India

A group of six chromolithographed illustrations of shoes, some printed with gold and silver inks.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 6.</li><li>Thomas Watson Greig (British, 1837–1912).</li><li>Scarce first edition.</li><li>The 63 ladies’ shoes now illustrated have all belonged to and been worn by ladies of the 19th century and have been most carefully selected to illustrate the variety and change of fashion during that period, each page contains three nearly life-sized shoes, including Madame Cerri's ballet slipper.</li><li>Published by David Douglas, Edinburgh, 1900.</li><li>Framed and glazed.</li></ul>

Ladies Dress Shoes

A star chart from the second edition of Flamsteed's Atlas Coelestis.<ul><li>Hand-colored sign of the zodiac heightened with gold and silver.</li><li>Engraved by John Mynde.</li><li>Framed and glazed.</li></ul> Charles II founded the Royal Observatory in Greenwich in 1675 and, in the same year, John Flamsteed (1646–1719) was appointed the first Astronomer Royal. Flamsteed began to collect data on the stars as observed using a telescope in order to create a star atlas showing the celestial sky above Greenwich. This was a huge undertaking and Flamsteed didn't live to see its publication, which was finally produced by his widow in 1729, ten years after his death. The stars were positioned and the astrological coordinates drawn by Abraham Sharp, while the figures in the constellations were after drawings by Sir James Thornhill and others. In his atlas, Flamsteed corrects the errors in position made by earlier astronomers such as Bayer in the 17th century. It was considered the first significant contribution of the&nbsp;Observatory, and the numerical Flamsteed designations for stars are still in use.

Eridanus Orion Lepus Star Chart, Atlas Coelestis

A group of Amaryllis <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Prints%2520and%2520colour%2520plate" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">plates</a> by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Prints%2520and%2520colour%2520plate&amp;query=Pierre-Joseph%20Redout%C3%A9&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Pierre-Joseph Redouté</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 8.</li><li>Pierre-Joseph Redouté (French).&nbsp;</li><li>Paris: Chez L’Auteur,&nbsp;1802-16.</li><li>Printed in colors and finished by hand.&nbsp;</li><li>Each is presented framed.</li></ul>&nbsp;Redoute was at the height of his powers during the publication of Les Liliacees. It is easily the equal in accomplishment of its more popular successor, Les Roses. The work is broader than its title implies, including as it does petaloid monocotyledons in general belonging, for example to Commelinaceae, Bromeliaceae, Liliaceae. At this time, he had as patron and sponsor Josephine Bonaparte, who, on acquiring Malmaison and establishing a superb garden of rare plants there, required an artist of outstanding talent to record them.

Amaryllis Plates

Roses aquatint and mezzotint, printed in color, finished by hand, and heightened with gum arabic from The Temple of Flora.<ul><li>Robert John Thornton (English, 1768–1837).</li><li>Framed and glazed.</li><li>This rare and celebrated plate of The Roses is the only one by Thornton by himself.</li></ul> Robert John Thornton (1786-1837) was a prolific medical author and became a Doctor of Medicine at St Andrews University and licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. However, he is best remembered for this great botanical publication The Temple of Flora, which formed a part of the larger work - New Illustration of the sexual system of...Linnaeus. In 1797, he also began advertising for subscribers to his planned natural history publishing venture, which eventually comprised of 30 folio botanical plates. For these remarkable illustrations, he engaged the services of the leading artists and engravers of his day Sir William Beechey, James Opie, Henry Raeburn, John Russell, Philip Reinagle and others as painters; Francesco Bartolozzi, Richard Earlom and John Landseer. Most of the images were painted by Peter Charles Henderson and Philip Reinagle. These botanical illustrations are unique as they were the first flower prints with landscape backgrounds, depicting the natural habitat&nbsp;the plant. The life-size flowers stand out dramatically and the whole effect is startlingly modern. Thornton's announced intention was to make this work the most magnificent tribute ever paid to the famous Swedish botanist Linnaeus by illustrating his Sexual System with the finest possible prints. All these were engraved on a larger scale than anything which had hitherto appeared and then were printed in colour, an expensive and uncommon method in England at this time.

English Hand-Colored Roses Engraving

Pair of Dutch celestial constellation charts with Christian iconography.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2.</li><li>Amsterdam: Schenk &amp; Valk, 1708.</li><li>Original color with additions including gold highlights.</li></ul> Celestial charts of the constellations, depicting them not in the traditional Greco-Roman figures, but in Christian imagery as envisaged by Julius Schiller in 1627 was an attempt to make the iconography of the stars more relevant to his day. Thus the Zodiac is represented by the Twelve Apostles and Pegasus has become Gabriel. All the figures are shown face on, because Schiller thought it would be an indignity to have them show their backsides. His changes caused him often to be ridiculed and did not catch on, but when they were published, his charts were the most accurate available. These charts were engraved by Jan van Loon and published in the "Atlas Coelestis; seu Harmonia Macrocosmica," the only celestial atlas to be produced in the Netherlands before the nineteenth century. It was a compilation of maps of the Ptolemaic universe and the more modern theories of Copernicus and Brahe, and remains the finest and most highly decorative celestial atlas ever produced.

Dutch Celestial Constellation Charts

Hand-colored lithographs from The Birds of Australia.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 4.</li><li>John Gould (English, 1804-1881).</li><li>London: For the author, R. &amp; J. Taylor 1848.</li><li>Framed and glazed.</li></ul>&nbsp;John Gould is widely considered as the greatest and most ambitious of all Victorian ornithologists, combining both artistic skill, beauty and anatomical accuracy. Following the tradition of natural history illustrators, such as Barraband and Audubon, Gould enlisted the services of some of the most notable ornithological artists; including Edward Lear, Joseph Wolf and his own wife, Elizabeth, to complete the most outstanding and comprehensive works in the field. A contemporary reviewer said of this work, “Great as is the excellence of Mr Gould’s former publications, there can be no doubt that the present work exceeds them all, both in an artistic and in a scientific point of view... Whether the dignified repose of the eagle, the pert Malurus, the restless parakeet, or the lean and anxious wader, he is equally successful in his efforts.” Indeed, still today, the work is noted as Gould’s most accomplished. In particular, the plates depicting parrots and cockatoos have propelled the work into becoming the most valuable Gould publication. It is also still one of the most comprehensive ornithological works on Australia, an incredible feat considering the continent had only been discovered 70 years previously. As a result of the labors of Gould and his assistants, well over 300 new species were added to the existing list of birds known to inhabit Australasia.

Group of Parrot Lithographs

<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?Book%20Subject=Prints%2520and%2520colour%2520plate" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Plates</a> from 'One of the finest and rarest books on fruit,' by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?Book%20Subject=Prints%2520and%2520colour%2520plate&amp;query=Pierre%20Jean%20Fran%C3%A7ois%20Turpin&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Pierre Jean François Turpin</a> and <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?Book%20Subject=Prints%2520and%2520colour%2520plate&amp;query=Pierre%20Antoine%20Poiteau&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Pierre Antoine Poiteau</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 4.</li><li>Pierre Jean François Turpin (French).</li><li>Pierre Antoine Poiteau (French).</li><li>Traité des arbres Fruitiers.</li><li>Paris: H. Perronneau for T. Delachausée, 1807-1835.</li><li>Stipple-engraved plates printed in colors and finished by hand.</li><li>Each is presented framed.</li></ul>&nbsp;This series takes its title from Duhamel's Traité of 1768, it is an independent work and was intended as Poiteau and Turpin's homage to the earlier work. A team of over twenty engravers was involved. The color printing was by Langlois, the great French color-printer who supervised much of Redouté's work.

Traité Des Arbres Fruitier Plates

Hand-colored lithographs from&nbsp;The Birds of Australia.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 4.</li><li>John Gould (English, 1804-1881).</li><li>London: For the author, R. &amp; J. Taylor 1848.</li><li>Framed and glazed.</li></ul>&nbsp;John Gould is widely considered as the greatest and most ambitious of all Victorian ornithologists, combining both artistic skill, beauty and anatomical accuracy. Following the tradition of natural history illustrators, such as Barraband and Audubon, Gould enlisted the services of some of the most notable ornithological artists; including Edward Lear, Joseph Wolf and his own wife, Elizabeth, to complete the most outstanding and comprehensive works in the field. A contemporary reviewer said of this work, “Great as is the excellence of Mr Gould’s former publications, there can be no doubt that the present work exceeds them all, both in an artistic and in a scientific point of view... Whether the dignified repose of the eagle, the pert Malurus, the restless parakeet, or the lean and anxious wader, he is equally successful in his efforts.” Indeed, still today, the work is noted as Gould’s most accomplished. In particular, the plates depicting parrots and cockatoos have propelled the work into becoming the most valuable Gould publication. It is also still one of the most comprehensive ornithological works on Australia, an incredible feat considering the continent had only been discovered 70 years previously. As a result of the labors of Gould and his assistants, well over 300 new species were added to the existing list of birds known to inhabit Australasia.

Pencil, watercolor and body color drawing heightened with white on paper and watermarked J. Whatman 1804 and 1805.<ul><li>Well executed and highly atmospheric watercolors capturing the importance of the river for trade in early 19th century China.</li><li>Unusual and very attractive depictions of river life with the river in the foreground with a finely executed drawing of a native boat, the backgrounds showing landscape scenes interspersed with occasional architectural details.</li><li>Framed and glazed.</li></ul> The Pearl River is so named because of the pearl-colored shells that lie at the bottom of the river in the section that flows through the city of Guangzhou. Formerly often known as the Canton River, it is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catchall for the watersheds of the Xi ("West"), Bei ("North") and Dong ("East") rivers of Guangdong. These rivers are all considered tributaries of the Pearl River because they share a common delta, the Pearl River Delta. Measured from the farthest&nbsp;of the Xi River, the Pearl River system is China's third-longest river, 2,400 kilometers, after the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, and second largest by volume, after the Yangtze.

Chinese Craft on the Pearl River Mixed Media Drawing

A set of framed botanical prints.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 8.</li><li>Various flowers with hand-painted mats in carved gilt silver frames.</li></ul>

English Georgian Hand Colored Botanical Framed Prints

A collection of engravings after <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Joachim%20Sandrart&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Joachim Sandrart</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 12.</li><li>Joachim Sandrart (German).</li><li>Venice: Stefano Scolari, 1650.</li><li>Copper-plate engravings.</li><li>Each is captioned in Latin with 8 lines of Latin verse below image.</li><li>Each is numbered and mounted.</li></ul>&nbsp;This decorative series, Labours of the Months refers to the Medieval cycle depicting in twelve scenes the rural activities that commonly took place in the months of the year. These scenes all depict tasks which are necessary all year round to put food on the table. They are all linked to the signs of the Zodiac and in each engraving the relevant sign appears indicating the relationship between the heavens and earth.&nbsp; The engravings are after a series was created by the artist Joachim Sandrart (1606-1688) and commissioned by Prince Elector Maximilian I of Bavaria for the old Schleissheim Palace. Painted in Amsterdam in 1641-43, the work comprises the twelve labors of the months, also includes two allegories of time (hours of the day) (today they are housed at Old Pinakothek, Munich). As a series of etchings the paintings were reproduced for the first time in 1645 by the engravers Falck, Suyderhoef, van Dalen the Younger, Haelwegh, Persijn and others (another edition dated 1651). This series of copperplates, was engraved by the Venetian engraver and publisher Stefano Scolari who worked between 1650-70. All the plates have the Latin verses by Caspar Barlaeus below the image . The texts were published in Sandrart’s Lebenslauf und Kunstwerke.

Labours of the Months Engravings

Strong impressions of etchings of grotesque masks after original designs by the Italian artist and engraver Aloisio Giovannoli (1550–1618).<ul><li>Sold as a set of 4.</li><li>Each set with nine plates.</li><li>The publisher claims that the masks were inspired by antiquity, but a more likely source of inspiration is the work of Giulio Romano (Pouncey &amp; Gere, Italian Drawings in the British Museum, Raphael and his circle, London 1962, plates 94, 113) and others, including the French Renaissance artist René Boyvin (ca. 1525–1598).</li><li>Published by Venanzio Monaldini, Rome.</li><li>Published as Serie di Mascheroni Cavati dall'antico che per la prima volta escono in luce intagliati in rame opera utile a professori ed amatori delle belle arti.</li><li>Framed and glazed.</li></ul> Plates are lettered either "Libro P[rimo]" or "Libro S[econdo]" and also numbered, inscribed "C.P." (cum priviligio), some have the artist's name, "Ali Gio." On some plates, this has been partially burnished out. There is no record of any previous issue of the plates, and Monaldini's claim on the title page (not present) that&nbsp;prints here are "per la prima volta escono in luce" makes it probable that these prints are published here for the first time.

Italian Grotesque Mask Etchings

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a> framed <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?Book%20Subject=Prints%2520and%2520colour%2520plate" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">print</a> of ballet slippers.<ul><li>Thomas Greig (English).</li><li>Edinburgh: David Douglas,&nbsp;1900.</li><li>Chromolithographed illustration of a pair of&nbsp;Ballet Slippers.</li><li>Printed with gold and silver inks.</li><li>Framed and glazed.</li></ul>&nbsp;‘The sixty-three ladies’ shoes now illustrated have all belonged to and been worn by ladies of the 19th century. They have been most carefully selected to illustrate the variety and change of fashion during that period.’ Each page contains three nearly life-sized shoes except for a single shoe on frontispiece and last plate, which depicts Madame Cerri's ballet slipper.

Ballet Slippers

Moritz Lowey (French, 1833-1907) and Pierre-Henri Puiseux (French, 1855-1928).<ul><li>Héliogravure after photographs by Loewy and Puiseux depicting the Moon’s surface, from L'Atlas Photographique de la Lune.</li><li>The finest and most meticulous image of the moon until the 1970s.</li><li>Deemed worthy of exhibition at the Paris World Fair in 1900.</li><li>L'Atlas Photographique de la Lune was the ultimate achievement of 19th-century astronomical photography, and can be regarded as one of the great publishing ventures of the 19th and early 20th centuries.</li><li>Moritz Loewy and Pierre-Henri Puiseux, assisted by Charles Morvan, undertook a project to make a complete series of detailed photographs of the moon and the lunar surface. Their very best images were then published in L'Atlas photographique de la Lune. This was issued in fascicles in 1896 and 1910 by the Observatory of Paris; the atlas represents the best and most complete overview of the work of Loewy and Puiseux.</li><li>The enlargements were used to decorate the showroom of the Ministère de l'Instruction Publique at the Exposition Universelle during the World's Fair, which was held in Paris in 1900.</li><li>Framed and glazed.</li></ul>

Atlas de la Lune: Pole Sud Pitiscus Zagut

Armand M. (French).'Reminiscence' Serigraph was influenced by travels through Venice and works by the old masters.Signed in the lower right corner and numbered AP26/100 in the lower left.Giltwood frame glazed under acrylic.

Architectural Mosaic Framed Serigraph

Detailed <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?Book%20Subject=Maps%2520and%2520Atlases" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">map</a> of Oman, with Muscat marked, by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Philippe%20Vandermaelen&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Philippe Vandermaelen</a>.<ul><li>Philippe Vandermaelen (Belgian).</li><li>Partie de L'Arabie. Asie No 92.</li><li>Brussels: 1827.</li><li>Original color.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> Showing part of the Arabian peninsula, including Oman, with Muscat and the island of Marirah also marked. Published in the Atlas Universel de Geographie, the first atlas to have every map on the same scale, 1:1,641,836. Because of this standardization it was the first time that some areas of the world were shown with any detail. However, the interior of the peninsula is mostly blank and some of the coastal features are incorrect.

Belgian Map Of Oman

Hand-finished copper engravings from Hortus Eystettensis, one of the earliest and most famous works in the field.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 4.</li><li>Copper engraved plates enhanced by hand with color.</li><li>Basilius Besler&nbsp;(German, 1561–1629) was a respected Nuremberg apothecary and botanist, best known for his monumental Hortus Eystettensis.</li><li>Framed and glazed.&nbsp;</li><li>Published by Nuremberg and Eichstatt.</li></ul> The Hortus Eystettensis is a pictorial record of the flowers grown in the greatest German garden of its time, that of Prince Bishop of Eichstatt, Johann Conrad von Gemmingen. The garden was begun by Joachim Camerarius in 1596 and, after his death in 1598, completed by Basilius Besler. A visitor, Philipp Hainhofer, in 1611 marveled at the eight gardens, each containing "flowers from a different country; they varied in the beds and flowers, especially in the beautiful roses, lilies, tulips." The Hortus records this variety and beauty. The book is exceptional in every sense; in its variety and range of flowers, in its size, in its fine quality of engraving. It is also one of the earliest records of flowers from a specific, documented&nbsp;garden. Besler was asked to complete the work by Gemmingen in 1606; the huge nature of the task was clear to Besler and he enlisted the help of his younger brother Hieronymus and Ludwig Jungermann, a nephew of Camerarius. Printing the Hortus may have begun as early as 1607. Drawings were made in situ and from specimens sent by the Bishop to Nuremberg; the Bishop reported to Hainhofer that he had boxes of fresh flowers sent every week to Besler at Nuremberg for sketching. A team of at least 10 engravers were employed to translate the drawings to copper plates. The gardens, along with most of the town of Eichstatt, were destroyed by the invading Swedish troops under Herzog Bernhard von Weimar in 1633–4, although they were partially restored by later bishops. Many of the original drawings survive in the University Library, Erlangen.

German Hand-Colored Peony Engravings

The first map of the county of Cornwall, here published one and a half centuries after its original publication.<ul><li>Christopher Saxton (English).</li><li>Cornwall described by C. Saxton, corrected and many additions as the roads &amp; c. by P. Lea.</li><li>London: George Willdey, circa 1732.</li><li>Old color.</li></ul> Over the years, a number of changes had been made to the plate: the original title was replaced by the view of Launceston c. 1665; the arms of Elizabeth I were replaced by those of Charles I, then Charles II; the panel of armorials were added c. 1665 by an unknown publisher; Lea added his name and Ogilby's roads in 1689 and changed the title for the second time in 1694; and Willdey added his address c. 1732. Willdey seems to have been a jack-of-all-trades: his address reads "the Great Toy, Spectacle, China Ware, and Print Shop, the corner of Ludgate Street near St Paul's London." Still, this was not the end of the Saxton plates; they were issued again by Thomas Jefferys and Cluer Dicey into the 1770s.

Map of Cornwall

Johann Elias Ridinger (German, 1698-1767) painter, engraver, draughtsman and publisher.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 4.</li><li>Mezzotint engraving plates, margins on all sides.</li><li>A fine group showing two male and two female hunters along with the spoils of the chase. </li><li>Each plate titled beneath image with lines of appropriate verse in German and Latin.</li><li>Ridinger studied at Ulm before establishing himself in Augsburg where he soon made a great reputation for animal paintings. </li><li>He became the official painter for several great nobles, aficionados of the hunt, as here he represented animals accurately in the midst of well-worked landscapes.</li><li>Framed and glazed.</li></ul>

Hunting Plates

Camelopardal & Auriga Star Chart, Atlas Coelestis

A 17th century <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/maps-&amp;-botanicals?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">map</a> of the Turkish Empire by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;objectTypes=Book&amp;query=Frederick%20De%20Wit&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Frederick De Wit</a>.<ul><li>Frederick De Wit (Dutch).</li><li>Turcicum Imperium.</li><li>Amsterdam: circa 1688. </li><li>Original color.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> The second state of De Wit's map of the Turkish Empire, without 'Johannes Lhulier Sculp' in the bottom right border and with his own imprint in the title cartouche. Some more detail has been added in the interior of Arabia (in the region of modern Riyadh), and, strangely, in Italy &amp; Germany. The title cartouche features three men in turbans above two western slaves.

Dutch Map Of The Turkish Empire

17th century <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/maps-&amp;-botanicals?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">map</a> of the Dutch Spice Islands.<ul><li>Jodocus Hondius II (Dutch).</li><li>Willem Janszoon Blaeu (Dutch).</li><li>Moluccae Insulae Celeberimae.</li><li>Amsterdam: 1640.</li><li>Fine original color.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> Early map of the islands of Ternate, Timor, Tidore and Makian, off the coast of Halmahera, orientated with north to the right with an insert map of the Dutch East India Company's trading post on Bachian Island. This chain was a focal point of the VOC's lucrative spice trade. Despite Blaeu's name on the plate, this map was engraved by Jodocus Hondius II (son of the engraver of Speed's county atlas). When Jodocus died in 1629 many of his plates were sold to Willem Blaeu, who added his name to the plates and used them to publish his first atlas in 1630. Angered by the sale, Hondius's brother-in-law Jansson had these plates slavishly copied for the family atlas.

Dutch Map Of Moluccas

Hand-painted Chinese work on paper funeral banner.<ul><li>Qing Dynasty funeral scene.</li><li>Painted on rice paper in blues, pinks and greens with gilt accents.</li><li>Marked lower right.</li><li>Ivory silk brocade matting.</li><li>Gilt frame with hardware for wall hanging.</li></ul>

Chinese Qing Dynasty Veneration Scene

A group of six chromolithographed illustrations of shoes, some printed with gold and silver inks.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 6.</li><li>Thomas Watson Greig (British, 1837–1912).</li><li>Scarce first edition.</li><li>The 63 ladies’ shoes now illustrated have all belonged to and been worn by ladies of the 19th century and most carefully selected to illustrate the variety and change of fashion during that period, each page contains three nearly life-sized shoes, including Madame Cerri's ballet slipper.</li><li>Published by David Douglas, Edinburgh, 1900.</li><li>Framed and glazed.</li></ul>

Large-scale watercolors on paper from the Chinese School.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2.</li><li>Chinese scenes, possibly Canton or Shanghai, presumably executed for the Western market by an anonymous master and depicting internal and external views of a house.</li><li>Framed and glazed.</li><li>This type of export watercolor is usually found in a much smaller format, due to their delicate nature; it is uncommon to find examples of such size with fresh coloring.</li></ul>

Chinese House Scene Watercolors

A star chart from the second edition of Flamsteed's Atlas Coelestis.<ul><li>Hand-colored sign of the zodiac heightened with gold and silver.</li><li>Engraved by John Mynde.</li><li>Framed and glazed.</li></ul> Charles II founded the Royal Observatory in Greenwich in 1675 and, in the same year, John Flamsteed (1646–1719), was appointed the first Astronomer Royal. Flamsteed began to collect data on the stars as observed using a telescope in order to create a star atlas showing the celestial sky above Greenwich. This was a huge undertaking and Flamsteed didn't live to see its publication, which was finally produced by his widow in 1729, ten years after his death. The stars were positioned and the astrological coordinates drawn by Abraham Sharp, while the figures in the constellations were after drawings by Sir James Thornhill and others. In his atlas, Flamsteed corrects the errors in position made by earlier astronomers such as Bayer in the 17th century. It was considered the first significant contribution of the&nbsp;Observatory, and the numerical Flamsteed designations for stars are still in use.

Andromeda Perseus Triangulum Star Chart, Atlas Coelestis

Samuel&nbsp;Buck (1696–1779) and his brother&nbsp;Nathaniel Buck&nbsp;(died between 1759 and 1774) were English engravers and printmakers.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 5.</li><li>Copper engraving, printed on five sheets, framed and glazed individually.</li><li>The most important panorama of London of its period.</li><li>Samuel Buck and his brother Nathaniel are among the finest topographical artists to have worked in</li></ul>England.<ul><li>From 1720 onwards, first Samuel and then his brothers toured England, drawing views of the cities and towns, castles, antiquities (particularly ruined monasteries) and other landmarks; they financed publication of this bold project by soliciting advance subscriptions.</li><li>The crowning achievement of their long career, the most ambitious single view they had undertaken,</li></ul>is this highly important prospect of London taken from the River Thames drawn from five vantagepoints, and then blended into one continuous panorama, extending from Westminster Bridgedownstream to London Bridge and the Tower of London.<ul><li>While many other artists (including, Wenceslas Hollar, Jan Kip and William Morgan, among others) had published earlier panoramas from similar viewpoints, these early versions incorporated a great deal of artistic license to flatter London.</li><li>The Bucks’ image is a faithful rendition, and its size, the detail and its accurate portrayal of London make it a definitive mid-18th century record of London, in an era of rapid change.</li><li>The historical importance of the Buck panorama, its attention to minute detail in the search for accuracy and its artistic beauty make it one of the most important and collectible of any of the</li></ul>images of historic London.<ul><li>Framed and glazed.</li></ul>

A General View of London and Westminster

An early 19th century description of Constantinople, by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Johann%20Adam%20Bergk&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Johann Adam Bergk</a>.<ul><li>Johann Adam Bergk (German).</li><li>Beschreibung von Constantinopel... Nebst einem Plane und einem Prospekte dieser Stadt, so wie einer Charte von den Dardanellen.</li><li>Leipzig: Industrie-Comptoir, circa 1807. </li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Three folding engraved plates.</li><li>Wrappers, front printed with title.</li></ul> A German-text description of Constantinople, illustrated with a map and prospect of the city, and a map of the Dardanelles.

German Map Of Constantinople

A mid-19th century town plan of New York City by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=John%20M.%20Atwood&amp;tab=objects" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">John M. Atwood</a>.<ul><li>John M. Atwood (American).</li><li>Map of the City of New York with the Adjacent Cities of Brooklyn &amp; Jersey City, &amp; The Village of Williamsburg.</li><li>New York: Ensign &amp; Thayer, 1849. </li><li>Original color.</li><li>Folded into cloth gilt covers, with booklet, with titlepage.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> A folding plan of New York City with insets of Jersey City and Upper Manhattan. Of interest is the list of 'strokes of bell', for fire alarms of each district. The text is an extensive gazetteer.

Map Of New York City

An early English chart of the east coast of Newfoundland on two sheets, by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Henry%20Southwood&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Henry Southwood</a>.<ul><li>Henry Southwood (English).</li><li>The Coast of New Found Land From Cape-Raze to Cape St-Francis. The Coast of New Found Land From Salmon Cove to Cape Bonavista.</li><li>London: W. &amp; J. Mount and T. Page, 1748. </li><li>Two sheets conjoined.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> The east coast of Newfoundland from Bonavista south to Trepassy, orientated with north to the right. Insets show St John's Harbor and Trinity Harbor. The chart was engraved by James Clark and first published in John Thornton's Atlas Maritimus in 1676. This example was published in an edition of Mount &amp; Page's The English Pilot. The Fourth Book Describing The West India Navigation... Also, a New Description of Newfoundland, New-England, New-York, East and West New Jersey, Dellevar-Bay, Virginia, Maryland, and Carolina. This was the first sea atlas of America containing charts only from English sources.

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Robert John Thornton

Gerard and Leonard Valk

Colonel Henry Ravenshaw Thuillier

Thomas Watson Greig

John Flamsteed

Pierre-Joseph Redouté

Robert John Thornton

John Gould

Pierre Jean François Turpin, Pierre-Antoine Poiteau

John Gould

Chinese School

Chinese School

After Joachim Sandrart

After Giovannoli Aloisio

Thomas Watson Greig

Moritz Lowey, Pierre-Henri Puiseux

Philippe Vandermaelen

Basilius Besler

Christopher Saxton

Johann Elias Ridinger

John Flamsteed

Frederick De Wit

Willem Janszoon Blaeu, Jodocus II Hondius

Thomas Watson Greig

Chinese School

John Flamsteed

Samuel Buck, Nathaniel Buck

Johann Adam Bergk

John M. Atwood

Chinese School

Henry Southwood