HiBCoR

HiBCoR Map Grading System
A grading system can help the starting collector to set his focus. We realize that such a grading system is subjective and to some extent, varies between the types of maps graded.
A grading system with condition codes are in the past introduced by Graham Arader in 1979.
Rodney Shirley used a Rarity Index system for world maps in his highly recommended reference work The Mapping of the World, published in 1984 and by The Antique Map Price Record & Handbook, using a condition classification system and in 1998 introducing a Cummulative frequency distribution of map-makers, giving more insight in the rarity of maps by different map makers.

In a nutshell, four key items determine a map's value: historical importance, beauty, condition and--last in Graham Arader's estimation--rarity. "I would call [rarity] 'the refuge of the ignorant dealer,' the uneducated dealer who reaches for this word to suck an unwary collector into his grasp," he says.
"If it's 'rare,' extremely rare, and it has no historical importance; [or] it's ugly, and it's been restored and it has no margins and there's a tear in it--who cares? Why would you want it?
So 'rarity' is important [only] if the other three categories are [met]."

Overall grading

HiBCoR grades a map on a scale of 1 to 10. This valuation is based on the combination of Historical significance, Beauty, Condition and Rarity.
As a result an extremely rare map in poor condition still grades higher than a common map in very good condition.
The grading is also reflected in the price, and a map in fine original colors grades higher than one in modern colors and valuates double in price!

H!BCoR***  grades the maps as follows:

  Historical significance

Round 150 A.D., Ptolemy published an eight-volume book, Geographia, that contained a world map, 26 regional maps and many smaller ones. No original copies of this book or his maps survive, but maps based on Ptolemy's theories were the first to come off the Renaissance's printing presses and his calculations of the circumference of the world influenced mapmakers and geographic thought well into the 1700s.

The period from the mid-1500s to the 1680s is often called mapmaking's "Golden Age," an era when Dutch and Flemish cartographers turned out especially exquisite examples of the mapmaker's art. Late-nineteenth-century maps, however, now fall into the more than 100 years old "antique" category.

Maps that feature the misconceptions, mistakes and wild imaginings of the past: California depicted as an island (a belief that persisted for more than 100 years); sea monsters spouting above the waves and strange beasts lumbering over uncharted terrain; bizarre races as weird as any imagined aliens--people born with their heads set into their chests or ears large enough to sleep in.

"Unrecorded" maps still appear frequently on the market. There are new "discoveries" in the field of antique maps all the time.
Many collectors are conducting their own pioneering studies within their collecting themes. The number of specialist map collecting books has grown exponentially in the past 20 years and will continue to do so. However, finding an unrecorded map or identifying previously unrecorded or under-appreciated information on a map is one of the great joys of collecting. 

Historical importance
  Key map
  Very important
  Important
  Direct derived
  50 years after first publication
  more than 100 years after first publication

Beauty 

Beauty
  Very decorative
  Decorative
  General
  Not so decorative
  Dull
  Not artistic at all

Condition

The following  imperfections should be mentioned in the condition report:

Stains

Several types of stains plague maps. Ink, candle wax, or even wine can be spilled on a map. Water leave stains by redistributing soluble material in the paper. Browning caused by oxidation tends to occur at the centerfold, where paste contacts the paper.
Sometimes the entire paper browns. Mildew spots, called foxing, also occur. Stains in the printed area are more serious than stains in the blank margin.
Stains affect the value of a decorative map more than a rare or purely historical map.

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."

The condition of an antique map affects 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 depends on several factors.
Maps that 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.

  Mint
  Very fine
  Fine
  Good
  Fair
  Poor; Sold as is

We are using some general terms covering the following standards:


Mint condition. Clean and bright paper with wide margins, very good and dark impression. If colored in strong original colors, and strictly applied at publication. No imperfections. Hard to find nowadays; perhaps 3% of the offered items are according to this rating.


Very fine condition. Clean and bright, with crisp engraved lines, good margins on sound paper. Possibly a very minor marginal restoration (usually small centerfold split, in the outer margin - accomplished professionally). Note: Each imperfection is described in the condition report.


Fine condition. Good and dark impression. Good margins and paper quality, with possibly very light (pleasant) age-toning. Possibly a small marginal tear, or just affecting the printed image - accomplished professionally. Note: Each imperfection is described in the condition report.


Good condition. Item has the usual minor wear and tear of an item of 200-500 years of age, however NO detracting imperfections in the image. Very light age-toning, possible minor discoloration in the image. Possible restoration of small tears has been accomplished professionally.
Note: Each imperfection is described in the condition report.


Fair condition. Noticeable imperfections. Paper may be age-toned or slightly browned or has slight spotting. Separations or tears entering image - restoration accomplished professionally. Note: Each imperfection is described in the condition report.


Poor condition. Needs significant repair and cleaning. If an item has faults that are hard to describe; or a book/atlas whose contents is not according to the reference works, we sell the lot as sold as-is. The buyer has no rights to return the item claiming that the item is not according to the catalog description.

Any lot differing from the catalog description in such a way that it affects the value of the item may be returned within one week of receipt, for a full refund of the purchase price.

Coloring
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 colors in almost all cases and they note if a map is in original or recent colors. 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 that 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 day's well-respected colorists did exist. The most well know colorist was Dirk Jansz. Van Santen, who colored 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.

Paper
The art of papermaking evolved significantly between the time of the first printed map and modern times. Until the early 19th Century, most maps were printed on handmade 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, the 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.

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 & imprint.
The earliest printed maps were printed using either wood blocks or copperplate engraving methods. By the middle of the 16th Century, the use of woodblocks was being phased out, and copper plates were the prevalent method for the next 300 years. At the end of the 18th Century and the 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 woodblock 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 platemark is generally 5mm. outside the neatline. 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(ius) 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).

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 flaw, a small tear, a wormhole, minor staining or foxing, a narrow margin or some other imperfection to antique maps are becoming increasingly common. 

Condition
  Mint
  Very good
  Good
  Fine
  Fair
  Poor; Sold as is

Rarity

How rare is the map, how often did it appear on the market? 

Rarity 

	An exceptionally rare and important map. Only a few examples are known and these are usually in institutional libraries.
	Very rare. Only several examples are 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 years a copy turns up.
	Uncommon. A map which is infrequently available in the open market. Typically maps from the 16-18th century, maps from atlases published by Ortelius, Blaeu, Hondius, Visscher, Speed.
	Common. Freely available in the open market. Printed in large quantities. Often steel engravings from the 19th century.

Marcel van de Broecke calculated the number of copies printed for each atlas published by Ortelius.
Because of the fact that the bookkeeping of the publishing house Plantijn was kept, he was able to calculate the number of copies printed for each edition. We see that certain text editions, and therefore states of the copper plates, are rarer than others. Spanish and English text editions are among the rarest.

For similar maps, the maker can strongly influence the price. David Jolly gives the following example "Ortelius and de Jode both produced similar maps at about the same time. However, Ortelius produced far more editions of his atlas, making de Jode maps scarce by comparison. Thus, de Jode maps appear far less frequently on the market.

With similar demand, this results in comparable maps from de Jode's atlas being more expensive than those of Ortelius."
Ortelius' maps are as a general rule, more decorative than those by de Jode; thus, rarity grades above beauty.

The Paulus Swaen Curated Collection of carefully selected old and rare maps which are all graded with 8-10 stars in the HiBCoR grading system.
All Items in this curated collection have one of more of the following qualities:

• mint condition
• original color
• heightened in gold or original dark black and white condition.
• RARE These items can not be found elsewhere on the web or in sale catalogs for at least 20 years.
• or can be relatively common items but in stunning color, heightened with gold or of historical significance or items of outstanding beauty or decorative value.

We do not include newly colored-up maps, restored maps, or common maps. This carefully selected list of old and rare maps, atlas and books have all in common that they are extraordinary items that make a difference to any collection.

While buying a colored-up map seems to give joy to the starting collector, collecting maps in contemporary color or extraordinary condition gives in long-term everlasting joy. 

These days, common run-of-the-mill items show a price erosion, with ample supply and modest demand, maps in original colors, and in general extraordinary items have seen a robust increase in value.
Always remember that the moment you get interested in maps, your knowledge and taste will increase; the quality of your purchases not!