COLLECTIONS

Curated Collections of Antique Maps & Prints

The Collection category brings together original antique maps and prints selected for their shared historical significance, authorship or thematic focus. Rather than being organised solely by geography, these groupings highlight influential explorers, cartographers and narratives that shaped how the world was documented and understood from the 16th through the early 20th centuries.

Included are works connected to major voyages of exploration, such as those of Captain James Cook, Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin’s expedition under Louis de Freycinet, whose charts and printed material transformed European knowledge of the Pacific, Australia and surrounding regions. Other collections focus on traditions of cartography itself, including Dutch Golden Age exploration and mapping, which produced some of the most finely engraved and enduring maps of the early modern period.

The Collection category also encompasses thematic groupings that extend beyond exploration alone, including Indigenous and cultural history, where maps and prints reveal how landscapes, peoples and places were represented, interpreted and recorded through different historical lenses. These works offer valuable insight into the cultural, political and commercial contexts in which they were produced.

Each item within these collections is an original period piece, carefully selected and described for its historical relevance, visual character and authenticity. Together, these curated collections provide a deeper way to engage with antique maps and prints, allowing collectors and researchers to explore coherent narratives within the broader history of cartography and exploration.