Spotlight
MAY 2013
The 80th Anniversary of the iconic map of the London Underground
The first version of the diagrammatic map of London's tube network, which, despite being eighty years old, would be instantly recognisable to any commuter today.
Beck's revolutionary new 'electrical circuit' design dispensed with scale, bearing and surface landmarks other than the Thames, making the stations equidistant and straightening the curves. Beck submitted two proposals to the Publicity manager before his idea was accepted, and was paid only 10 guineas (today £380) for the artwork of this card, and 5 guineas more for the poster.
The Publicity Manager knew he was talking a chance with public opinion: the cover text continues "We should welcome your comments', but his gamble paid off and Beck's innovation has been in use ever since. Although there are new lines and different colours the only significant design change on the map is the use of rings rather than diamonds for interchanges.
MARCH 2013
The 500th Anniversary of Wäldseemüller's Geographia
2013 sees the 500th anniversary of the publication of Martin Wäldseemüller's edition of Claudius Ptolemy's Geographia, important for the addition of 20 new maps described as 'more proper for our time'. As such it was a step away from maps in books being merely illustrations of classical texts and closer to the modern concept of an atlas.
A second edition was published in 1520, the year Wäldseemüller died. He has been writing a new 'Chronica mundi' (history of the world) and new woodblock maps has already been cut when the project was shelved. Instead the blocks were used for a smaller-sized edition of Ptolemy's Geographia, published in 1522, 1525, 1535 & 1541.
For a list of our maps by Wäldseemüller click here
FEBRUARY 2013
A map for Valentine's Day: 'The Isle of Marriage'!
An Italian treatise on the Island of Matrimony, written as a travel book, describing: how to reach the island, through the ports of 'Love', 'Bad Advice' or 'Self-interest'; and where to live, including the provinces of 'the Jealous' and 'the Cuckolds', and the 'Mountains of in-laws'. Once on the island it is impossible to leave, but it is possible to go to the peninsulas of 'Widowhood' and 'Divorce', the 'Great Mausoleum' and, for the truly masochistic, 'Bigamy Island'. The title cartouche features a man with the 'cuckold's horns'. There are other features we have not been able to translate from the slightly archaic Italian, so this item is worthy of further research.
For more illustrations click here
DECEMBER 2012
A collapsible globe in superb condition and in full working order
An unusual collapsible 'umbrella' globe, showing the British Empire when it had a population of 450 million and covered approximately a quarter of the Earth's total land area.
The globe's mechanism was invented by John Betts in 1860; this example is a later issue by G. Philip & Sons who manufactured them from Bett's death ca. 1863 to ca. 1925. We have estimated the date of this example by the description of St Petersburg as 'Petrograd (Leningrad)' (renamed by the Soviets in 1924), and the separation of Transjordan from Palestine (1922) but before full independence from the British (1928). Undoubtedly the reason for the superb condition of this globe is the original cardboard tube.
For more illustrations click here
OCTOBER 2012
A Collection of the superb Celestial Charts by Andreas Cellarius
We are pleased to offer a collection of plates from 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 atlases ever produced. Engraved by Jan van Loon and originally published by Jan Jansson in 1660, these plates come from Schenk & Valk's reissue of 1708.
The Cellarius charts are increasingly scarce: these examples are the first loose plates we have acquired in almost a decade.
These fine charts can be browsed here
SUMMER 2012
Our first-ever printed catalogue
During the summer we issued Catalogue 1 to celebrate Altea Gallery's Twenty Years in the antiquarian map trade.
The catalogue is available from us by request. A PDF version can be downloaded here
