What Maps Should You Collect

There are usually two types of maps antique collectors focus on, these two types engage in a country/region’s development through history or some only find maps made by a certain mapmaker/cartographer

1. Vertical Maps

Vertical Maps are Maps that come from one area of the world, sometimes collectors only focus on a country and collect the maps it has through its development to modern time.

2. Horizontal Maps

Horizontal Map Collecting is something like collecting artwork with an artist in mind, people who collect these types of maps are usually either fascinated by the artwork of the mapmaker or the mapmaker was famous during their time.

Before Buying Antique Maps

According to business search and online search, before deciding what types of map you want to collect you should decide on your budget. How much are you willing to shell out to buy an antique map and what can you get with that amount of money. There are still a lot of maps that are priced under $150 however if you really like those rare and beautiful maps be prepared to shell out 5-6 figures. As a general rule, older maps are definitely much more expensive than modern ones.

Maps from the 16th-19th century are considered to be modern and are generally priced from $250- Thousands of dollars. It is also affected by economics. Maps from India, Russia and South America can be very affordable.

If you don’t want to spend the money to buy original maps but still want to have a beautiful map collection you can buy replicas or reproductions of expensive and rare antique maps. You should also know a bit about mapmaking history and some of the basics are the 17th-18 centuries were marked with very high accuracy and inaccuracies were only allowed in unexplored regions of the world.

Things to Remember

The best thing when you start your journey ass an antique map collector you should do is to visit antique map shops, talk to the dealers and see the wide range of maps available. Also, there are dedicated map fairs, and antiquarian book fairs where antique map dealers are represented.
Last Tip: Make sure that you are dealing with Professional Map Dealers and they can be found in most major cities in the US. You can also visit the Library Of Congress and See their map collection which run into the millions! Talk about a Map Collector’s dream come true!