Jasper52 map auction offers a world of choices

‘Asia According to the Sieur D’anville,’ 1772, estimated at $3,000-$4,000

NEW YORK – Maps are beautiful, decorative, and functional. Not only do they put the world in your hands, they let you fold or roll it up and carry it with you, wherever you might roam. It’s not surprising that collectors’ appetite for maps has been, and continues to be, absolutely insatiable. On May 4, starting at 8 pm Eastern time, Jasper52 will kick off its Premium Antiquarian Maps sale. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.

Curated by map expert Steve Kovacs, the Premium Antiquarian Map sale features 94 lots of fine cartography — some regional and some global, some in color and some in black and white.

Of particular interest is a 1772 map known by the title Asia According to the Sieur D’anville. The D’anville of the title appears to be Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville, a French geographer and cartographer. He was a prodigy who published his first map at the age of 15 and went on to comprehensively reform how maps are made by checking and rechecking information and discarding whatever fell outside the facts.

Four-sheet 1816 Mercator projection map, estimated at $2,500-$3,000

D’anville, after whom the town of Danville, Connecticut is named, created a map of China in the late 1730s. The 1772 map is likely based on that earlier work of his. Measuring a little longer than 20 by 47in and carries an estimate of $3,000-$4,000.

Also included is a Mercator projection map dating to 1816 and created by cartographer Adrien Hubert Brue. Navigators wholeheartedly embraced Mercator’s vision of the Earth’s surface because it is so well-suited to the needs of their livelihoods. Printed on four double-folio sheets, it measures 44 by almost 61in and is estimated at $2,500-$3,000.

Rand McNally circa 1877 railroad map, estimated at $3,000-$3,500

Rounding out the highlights is an example bearing the long but admirably straightforward title New Map of the Old Reliable Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad and Its Connections Showing the Direct East And West Through Lines. Printed circa 1877 by Rand McNally & Co., it measures almost 34 by 51in and is estimated at $3,000-$3,500.

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