FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Alexandra Nelson May 16, 2017 Communications Director 212-254-4710 ext. 19
[email protected] Early American Material Leads the Way At Swann Galleries’ Maps & Atlases Sale New York— On Wednesday, June 7, Swann Galleries will hold an auction of Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books, with highlights from the colonization of the Americas, as well as botanical prints and original watercolors. The sale is led by Samuel Baker’s untrimmed and unjoined A New and Exact Map of the Island of St. Christopher in America, 1753, which shows the island, now better known as St. Kitts, divided into parishes with a wealth of early information relating to structures on the island, as well as the surrounding waters. The borders of each of the four sheets are decorated in an elaborate Baroque style; the map is valued between $20,000 and $30,000. Among other treasures, the sale promises a trove of rare early maps of the United States. Selections include a 1750 map of Pennsylvania by Lewis Evans, whose publication in Germany helped spark emigration to the state, resulting in the still-traditional Pennsylvania Dutch population ($10,000 to $15,000). John Ogilby and Arnoldus Montanus’s America: Being the Latest, and Most Accurate Description of the New World, 1673, will be offered at $10,000 to $15,000. There is also a run of rare island maps by Aaron Arrowsmith, including a 1830 chart of Hawaii, then called "The Sandwich Islands," which, according to an inscription on the back, was purchased in 1832 by a ship’s captain who made a voyage to the area two years later ($8,000 to $12,000).