Grade your map according to HiBCoR Map Grading
System
In a nutshell, four key items determine a map's value: historical
importance, beauty, condition and rarity.
Update my map to current market situation .
* If
you use this page to grade your own map note that this is not an Appraisal
service and the printed valuation report can not be used for insurance, tax
and estate purposes. If you want to have a
professional map dealer evaluate and grade your map according to the
HiBCoR guidance please contact HiBCoR
Select Publisher:
Title:
Place & date:
Height mm.
Width mm.
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Region:
Paid for US $:
Year of aquisition:
Bought from :
Grade to Historical
significance
As to a map's historical significance, the potential collector wants to
determine if the map in question is a "breakthrough map," as Manasek wrote
in Mercator's World. He notes that this can be answered by asking:
"Was it made by an important mapmaker? Does it show, for the first time, a
radically different or improved image? Is it linked to political events,
essentially a cartopolitical statement of significance?"
Historical importance :
Beauty
With respect to a map's "beauty"--"Was the mapmaker talented? Did he make a
beautiful map, with beautiful baroque, rococo, mannerist or Renaissance
cartouches [or] designs? How well is the map engraved? How good is the
calligraphy on the map? Is it good to look at?" Basically, the new collector
has to "learn the aesthetic values" other map collectors prize, according to
Arader's system.
Beauty :
Condition
The condition of an antique map affect its value, but given the fact that
they are printed on such a fragile medium as paper, sometimes the mere fact
that they still exist is amazing. The condition is always very important,
but how important it is depends on several factors. Maps which were
bound into atlases will generally appear on the market in a good original
condition. Having been preserved in a bound volume, they have not been
subjected to the ravages of time and a minor restoration may mean a
significant devaluation. On the other extreme, separately issued maps,
wall maps and broadsheet maps were generally exposed to heavy use and the
elements and the survival rate is much lower. These maps tend to deteriorate
much more quickly and therefore cannot be expected to appear on the market
in perfect condition.
A repaired tear or narrow margin may reduce the value of
a map by 10-20%. A significant facsimile addition or more serious tears
may reduce the value much more. Many rare items becoming increasingly
difficult to locate on the market, and minor restorations are much less
of an issue.
Allowances can be made. "Minor repairs, such as neatly
repaired centerfold splits, marginal tears or small wormholes, do not
influence the value of a map to a very large extent," Manasek wrote.
"But whole areas replaced in facsimile, replaced margins, loss of image
by trimming, heavy staining or water damage all reduce the price of a
map. In the present market, a heavily damaged and repaired Blaeu
Americas may not be a bargain for $4,000. A superb example for $10,000
is."
Colouring
An antique map with gorgeous original color will generally sell for more
than an uncolored example, a recently colored example or a poorly colored
example of the same map. By contrast, if the same map is poorly colored or the
old color has caused damage or has offset (transferred onto the opposite side of
the map from having been folded into an atlas), the value of an uncolored or
recently colored example will fetch a higher price.
In between these two extremes, the difference is largely a matter of
personal preference. Very few collectors are actively seeking uncolored
examples of maps by Ortelius, Blaeu, Hondius and other mapmakers from
the Golden Age of Dutch Cartography, yet over half of all the maps and
atlases issued by these makers were offered uncolored. As a result, over
time, when these uncolored maps were offered for sale by dealers, many
had them colored. Some dealers will refresh old color, especially if the
map requires minor repairs or cleaning before the map is sold.
All reputable dealers can distinguish between old and modern color in
almost all cases and they note if a map is in original or recent
colours. The last issue point on color is whether the color is correct.
Poor color can reduce the value of a map by 50% to 75%.
Certain maps were not colored at the time of publication. Most editions of
Robert Dudley's sea charts and Vincenzo Coronelli's maps are examples of
maps which were usually not issued in color. Most collectors looking for
these maps expect to buy them without color and would find modern
colored examples less valuable than uncolored examples.
Several already in their days well respected colorists did exist. The
most well know colorist was Dirk
Jansz. Van Santen, who coloured the well known Atlas Vander Hem.
Other colorists are Koerten, Anna Beek. Many of them used lavishly gold
and silver to highlight titles and cartouches.
As to whether color or black and white looks better (or
is worth more), that is a personal preference.
Select coloring
Uncolored
Original color = Item has been coloured at the time of
publication.
Colored = The colors have been applied within the last 30
years.
Original out-line colours = Map has only border colours and
is applied during publication.
Original out-line colours = Map has only border colours and
is applied during publication.
Original full body color = Map has full body colour,
typically used during the 18th century by publishers like Homann, Seuter,
Lotter, etc. Typicaly cartouches are left unclored. If a cartouche has
recent color addition, this need to be indicated (Cartouche with later color
addition).
Striking strong colors =
17th century published offered different types of coloring to their
clients. A relatively small number of maps have more briljant
stronger coloring applied.
Hightened with gold or silver.
Paper The art of paper making evolved significantly between the
time of the first printed map and modern times. Until the early 19th Century,
most maps were printed on hand made paper. Early paper was made by combining the
pulp from rags with a liquid formula, spreading the wet pulp over chains and
laying the pulp out to dry. Watermarks on the paper can be helpful in
dating--but often mapmaking houses laid in huge stocks of paper and kept
producing maps from particular batches for up to 40 or 50 years at a stretch
By the late 18th Century, there were widely varying degrees of paper
quality. The quality of paper used for certain cheap mass produced
British "Magazine" maps is very different from the thick high quality
paper which was used by the top London / Amsterdam mapmakers. Certain
late 18th Century French mapmakers used a paper with a blue-green hue.
Beginning in the early 19th Century, machine made paper was becoming more
prevalent and the content of the paper was evolving away from rag and
cloth. By the mid-19th Century, cheaper machine made paper was employed
by some publishers and during this period and through the end of the
19th Century, some maps are characterized by a brittle quality, caused
by a higher acidic content in the paper.
Damage to Paper:
Water stained
Foxing and or soiling in
Margins
Foxing and or soiling Printed
Image
Margins Trimmed
Worm Holes
Loss of Printed Image
Discolouration of center fold
due to glue used on binding slip
Offseting due to color
oxidation
Paper broken on places due to
green oxidation
Tear(s) in Margin
Tear(s) in Printed Image
Fold Split in Margin
Fold Split in Printed
Image
Margins:
Folds & Centerfolds
Most antique maps come from either books or atlases, and therefore have
been folded at least once. If the map is from an atlas, it normally
would have been bound into the book using a strip of paper (a guard),
which was sewn into the binding, with the map in turn glued to the
guard, so that the map can be viewed flat and the centerfold is not
tightly bound into the book and inaccessible.
Plate Marks.
The earliest printed maps were printed using either wood blocks or
copper plate engraving methods. By the middle of the 16th Century, the
use of wood blocks was being phased out, and copper plates were the
prevalent method for the next 300 years. At the end of the 18th Century
and first part of the 19th Century, several new printing methods were
invented, including the use of steel plates, lithography, and
cerography. By the middle of the 19th Century, copper plates had largely
been replaced by lithographic printing methods, which remained the
primary method for making maps until the latter part of the 19th
Century, when new mass production methods replaced lithography.
The earlier methods of map printing are characterized by plate marks,
showing the impression the printing plate or wood block left on the
paper when the map was printed. This compression mark typically appears
outside of the neat line on the map. For earlier maps (wood blocks and
earlier copper plate maps), the plate mark is generally 5mm. outside the
neat line. Many reproductions of early maps can be readily identified by
either the lack of a plate mark or a plate mark that is too far from the
neatline.
From the earliest times, maps bound into books often included text on
the reverse side (verso) of the map. While some of the earliest maps and
views were bound into a book to be folded out, many are single or double
pages, with text on the back (verso) of the map. Maps published at the
end of the 16th century by Ortelius, Mercator, Speed, Braun & Hogenberg
and maps published in the 17th century by Blaeu, Hondius, Jansson and
many other early printers generally have text on the back of the map.
Generally, the lack of text on the verso of the same maps is a good
indicator that a map is a reproduction (although there are examples of
each of these map makers maps without text on the verso and are either
early proof states or later reprints).
Image / Imprint
If the impression is strong and clear, the map could be from an early
edition; a weak impression probably would indicate the opposite.
Repairs Minor repairs of a flaws, a small tear, a
wormhole, minor staining or foxing, a narrow margin, or some other
imperfection to antique maps are becoming increasingly common.
No damage or repairs
Restoration to Margins
Restoration/Facsimile within printed image
Cleaned
Flattened
Backed
Other Damage (explain)
Other Loss of Image (explain)
Rarity
How rare is the map, how often did it appear on the market ?
An exceptionally rare and important map. Only a
few examples known and these are usually in institutional libraries.
Very rare. Only several examples known in private
and public collections. Hardly available in the open market.
Rare. A map which is rarely offered by dealers or
obtained at auction.
Scarce. A map which is very infrequently
available in the open market. Such maps are offered by dealers or
auction houses, perhaps once every 1-3 year a copy turns up.
Uncommon. A map which is infrequently available
in the open market. Typically maps from the 16-18th century, maps
from atlasses published by Ortelius, Blaeu, Hondius, Visscher,
Speed.
Common. Freely available in the open market.
Printed in large quantitees. Often steel engravings from the 19th
century.
* If
you use this page to grade your own map note that this is not an
Appraisal service and the printed valuation report can not be used for
insurance, tax and estate purposes. If you want to have a
professional map dealer evaluate and grade your map according to the
HiBCoR guidance please contact HiBCoR