Boston Rare MapsSpecializing in antique American maps & prints
The scarce first edition of La Nuova Francia, the first map to focus on New England and northeastern North America and to name “New France.” This remarkable map was compiled by Giacomo Gastaldi for Giovanni Ramusio’s Navigationi et Viaggi, the third volume of which focused on American explorations. It reflects Gastaldi’s attempt to synthesize information […]
One of the finest early maps of the Northeast and a crucial document of England’s early attempts at colonization. Background In 1606 James I chartered the London (South Virigina) and the Plymouth (North Virginia) Companies, assigning them the rights and responsibilities for settling vast territories along the East Coast of North America. The London Company […]
An important, rare and very unusual map of North America and the Caribbean, extracted by Blaeu from his landmark West Indische Paskaert to meet a publishing deadline. The Insulae Americanae depicts eastern North America, much of Central America, part of Latin America, and the islands of the Caribbean. The brightly-painted arms of the Netherlands, England […]
A bundle of milestones by the colorful English chart maker Robert Dudley: The “first printed chart of New England and the New Netherlands” (Burden), and the first of the region to “indicate the prevailing winds, ocean currents and magnetic variations of the compass,” (Burden). From the “first nautical atlas by an Englishman, and the first […]
An iconic map of the New Netherlands, New England, Pennsylvania and parts of Maryland and Virginia. A superb example with fine color on thick paper with wide margins. This is one of the most important entrants in the “Jansson-Visscher” series of maps, many variants of which were issued over the course of more than a […]
This important work provides crucial information on eastern New York and southern New England. The main chart depicts the coast from Rensselaer Hook in New Jersey to roughly the “elbow” of Cape Cod, with extensive soundings and notations of shoals and other hazards. Much detail is given for Long Island Sound, Narragansett Bay and the waters […]
The rare first obtainable state of the finest general map of England’s American colonies to date. This most important map is one of the earliest to adopt Augustine Herrman’s cartography for Virginia and Maryland. To the North it includes one of the earliest depictions of the Pennsylvania colony (est. 1681), the first printed chart of […]
In 1638, the General Court of the Plymouth Colony granted a group of settlers the rights to a new town named Taunton, the validity of which grant was confirmed by Wampanoag Sachem Massasoit. In 1664 Massasoit’s son and successor Metacomet-more familiar to us as “King Philip”–confirmed that grant in writing, with his interpreter John Sassamon […]
Published around 1700, this Kriegs Spiel, or “The War Game,” is a scarce and attractive sheet of playing cards designed to educate young people in the elements of conducting a military campaign. The sheet comprises 53 engraved panels numbered sequentially. All but one is a playing card using the French suits, each bearing an illustration of a military maneuver or fortification […]
A considerable rarity, and the most detailed chart of Boston Harbor for its time. The chart depicts Boston Harbor from modern-day Winthrop in the north to Hull and Hingham in the south. It provides an immense amount of information for these complicated waters, including the many harbor islands, hundreds of soundings, and a multitude of rocks […]