PAULUS SWAEN OLD & RARE MAPS

We specialize in rare maps, atlases, globes, travel posters, master prints, and decorative prints from the 16th to 18th centuries and offer antique maps from all parts of the world, produced by renowned cartographers such as Ortelius, Mercator, Blaeu, Janssonius, Hondius, Visscher, and de Wit.
The items listed in our BuyNow catalogare available for immediate sale and every sold item will receive a certificate of authenticity. We offer a lifetime guarantee on all our items.
The high standards of our map and atlas collection are world-renowned.


Catalog of old maps and prints

Swaen BuyNow CATALOG

Our BuyNow-catalog offers immediate sale items, and no commission is charged. The catalog includes old maps of the World - America - Asia - Europe - Africa - Medieval Manuscripts - Nuremberg Chronicle - Prints - Posters, atlases, globes, etc.
Our stock is updated weekly, and our most recent additions are conveniently displayed in our "Latest Listings".
Have a look at our Gallery highlights or our Curated Collection of carefully selected old and rare maps, all graded 8-10 stars in the HiBCoR grading system.

Latest Listings

Latest Listings & Updates

You can always check our latest listings page. It is updated daily and you see what we’ve recently added. Let's take a look at some rare maps we've recently acquired.
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Feel free to contact us using the contact form, Chat on WhatsApp, or Social Media.


Highlights
Gallery Highlights

In this highlights section of the BuyNow catalog, we present some personal favorites from our large stock of authentic maps, atlases, prints, globes, posters and Medieval manuscripts.
The items are immediately available, and no commission is charged.

mapmakers
Mapmakers and explorers

Sometimes, maps become more famous than their makers. Many cartographers only become famous after they’ve created a masterpiece.
Still, others make a famous map, then disappear from history forever.

My Collection+
My Collection+

Now you can save any of your favorite items from our BuyNow catalog, Latest Listings or Archive in one place. Build your own Virtual Collection. It is free and you can delete an item at any time. Previously acquired items are automatically added to the My Collection+ list.

mapping of
The Mapping of . . .

We have created some short articles on the mapping of Arabia, Australia, Canada, China, Hungary, the Invasion of Minorca, Japan, Korea, Malta, the Mer de l'Ouest, the Northwest Passage, Poland, Russia, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Ukraine, among other regions.

catalog archive
Archive of sold items

Paulus Swaen maintains an archive of sold items, including images. Most map images are not subject to copyright and can be used freely, as they are in the public domain. These historically achieved prices can help understand the pricing development of old maps.


Articles about maps
Read our short articles

If you are interested in the backgrounds of antique maps, prints, mapmakers, etc. then you should read our short but informative articles >>>>
Or about posters, old prints, Nuremberg Chronicle, optical prints, medieval manuscripts, etc.



Featured Listings

Imposita saxo Jacob cervice quiescens Aligeros scalas vidit imre choros. Gene[sis] 28

A superb example of this illustration showing a blind Isaac blessing Jacob. Copper engraving published in " Thesaurus sacrarum historiarum veteris testamenti, elegan...

$300 / ≈ â‚¬262
Maker: DE JODE, G.
Date: Antwerp, 1585

 


Americae Pars Magis Cognita. Chorographia nobilis & opulentae Peruanae Provinciae, atque Brasiliae, . . . MDXCII

First state. Although a map of South America it does include much of what is now the southern United States. There are two elaborate, strap-work cartouches with the one a...

$6500 / ≈ â‚¬5683
Maker: DE BRY, Th.
Date: Frankfurt, 1592

 


Latium.

Based on classical authors' sources, specifically Virgilius, Plinius, Varro, Halicarnasseus, Festus and Ausonius.Philip Wingius in his letter to Ortelius from 1592 mentio...

$550 / ≈ â‚¬481
Maker: ORTELIUS, A.
Date: Antwerp, 1595

 


Kaart Van Nieuw Zeeland in de Jaaren 1769 en 1770 bezogt door den Luitenant J. Cook met het Schip De Endeavour.

A uncommon issue of this key map of New Zealand from the Dutch edition of Cook's map of New Zealand, published in 'Reize rondom de Waereld door James Cook', a Dutch editi...

$1900 / ≈ â‚¬1661
Maker: COOK, Captain J.
Date: Leyden, Amsterdam & The Hague: Honcoop, Allart & van Cleef, 1795-1801

 


[Title page from Theatrum orbis Terrarum, with past-on]

The frontispiece of the third part of the 'Theatrum', by Johan Blaeu. Heightened with goldDecorated with terrestrial and celestial globes and to the left Ptolemy (with sp...

$450 / ≈ â‚¬393
Maker: BLAEU, J.
Date: Amsterdam, ca. 1650

 


(Totius Americae nova et exacta tabula ex) optimis tum geographorum tum aliorum scriptis collecta et ad hodiernam regnorum principatuum et maiorum partium distinctionem accomodata.

Eastern part of a two-sheet map of America, with attribution to Willem Blaeu. According to Philip Burden, the map was derived from Cornelius Danckert's 1647 map of the sa...

$5000 / ≈ â‚¬4371
Maker: DE ROSSI, G. G.
Date: Rome, 1679

 


Popular Listings

Chinese advertising poster for Red Lion cigarette brand.

This poster, an advertisement for the Red Lion Cigarettes brand from the 1930s, melds the meticulous detail of traditional Chinese painting with the craft of color lithog...

$100 / ≈ â‚¬87
Maker: ASIATIC LITHOGRAPHIC PRINTING PRESS
Date: Shanghai, 1950/1960

 


A rare suite of 12 original etchings by Martin van Maele to the famous work by Edmond Haracourt.

A rare suite of 12 original etchings by Martin van Maele to the famous work by Edmond Haracourt. The series was published anonymously in a small edition. These etchings a...

$1500 / ≈ â‚¬1311
Maker: VAN MAELE, M.
Date: Nevers, Brussels, 1882,1883

 


Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula.

A beautifully decorative world map taken from the 'English Atlas' by Moses Pitt and Steven Swart, based on an earlier engraved world map by Pieter van den Keere ca. 1630,...

$6000 / ≈ â‚¬5246
Maker: PITT, M. / SWART, S. / JANSSONIUS VAN WAESBERGHE, J.
Date: Oxford, 1680

 


[Anti capitalism Soviet Union propaganda poster]

Propaganda mini anti-capitalism poster published in Russia during The Cold War. By the 1960’s and 1970’s, outrageous practices in Soviet bureaucracy flourished. Poor plan...

$100 / ≈ â‚¬87
Maker: THE FIGHTING PENCILS
Date: Leningrad, 1974

 



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