PRINTS & PHOTOGRAPHS

Antique Print & Map Room has been buying and selling original antique prints since 1979, building one of the most extensive specialist collections in Australia. The collection spans the full arc of European printmaking — from 16th-century copper engravings to 19th-century chromolithographs t0 works across natural history, topographical views, portraiture, botanical subjects, and historical photography.

Collectors searching for antique natural history prints will find one of the strongest holdings in the Southern Hemisphere. Original plates from John Gould’s Birds of Australia, The Mammals of Australia, and Birds of Asia sit alongside works by great Dutch and German natural history publishers of the 17th and 18th centuries. Bird prints, botanical prints, fish prints, shell prints, and insect prints are all well represented, spanning works from the age of Linnaeus through to the Victorian scientific surveys.

Antique topographical prints and views form the second major pillar of the collection. Australian colonial views — engravings and lithographs of Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, and regional towns from the earliest decades of European settlement — are particularly well stocked. Beyond Australia, the collection covers Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East, and Europe, drawn from the illustrated travel publications and expedition accounts that defined the 18th and 19th centuries.

For buyers of antique portrait prints, the collection includes historical portraits of royalty, statesmen, military officers, explorers, and scientists, primarily from British and European publications of the 17th through 19th centuries. Separately, antique photographs — albumen prints, cabinet cards, cartes-de-visite, and early photomechanical works — represent the 19th and early 20th centuries across portraiture, documentary, and colonial Australian subjects.

All works are originals from the period stated. Condition is assessed and described precisely for every item: foxing, toning, centrefolds, margins, and any prior restoration are noted explicitly. We do not sell reproductions. Items are priced across a wide range, from accessible decorative prints to rare museum-quality works. International shipping is available.