TOPOGRAPHICAL VIEWS

Antique Print & Map Room holds one of the largest specialist collections of antique topographical prints in Australia, including original works spanning three centuries of landscape printmaking. Collectors searching for antique views — whether of colonial Australia, the Pacific, Asia, or Europe — will find a consistently stocked and systematically organised collection, with new items added every two weeks.

Antique topographical views of Australia are the strongest single area of the collection. Engravings, aquatints, and lithographs record Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth from their earliest colonial decades, alongside pastoral runs, goldfields, Aboriginal subjects, and natural scenery. Key sources include the publications of Joseph Lycett, John Skinner Prout, S.T. Gill, and Eugene von Guerard, as well as the colonial illustrated press — the Illustrated Sydney News, the Australasian Sketcher — which brought Australian scenes to British and local audiences throughout the 19th century. Buyers looking for antique prints of Sydney Harbour, early Melbourne streetscapes, or Van Diemen’s Land views will find substantial holdings across all periods.

Beyond Australia, the collection covers antique views of Asia and the Pacific produced by European naval expeditions and commercial publishers — Japan, China, India, Southeast Asia, and Pacific island groups are all represented. Prints from the voyages of Cook and d’Urville sit alongside later 19th-century travel publications. The Middle East is well stocked with antique views of Egypt, the Holy Land, and the Levant, reflecting the surge in illustrated travel literature from the 1820s onward. European topographical prints span the Grand Tour subjects — Italy, Switzerland, the Rhine — through to the Crimean and Napoleonic campaign views that reached mass audiences via the illustrated periodicals.

Works are available in a range of formats and price points: large folio aquatints and lithographs from major publication series at the upper end, through to steel engravings from travel annuals and gift books, and periodical illustrations from the Illustrated London News and its colonial counterparts. All items are originals from the period stated. Condition is described precisely for every listing — foxing, toning, centrefolds, and any restoration noted — and international shipping is available on all purchases.