Where do antique maps and prints come from?
Occasionally, someone new to antique print collecting will be disappointed with their purchase and say “it’s just a page from a book!” The vast majority of all antique prints come from old books. Before the advent of modern printing processes engravings and lithographs were used to illustrate books. Most of the images sold by Lindisfarne Prints would originate from disbound 17th, 18th and 19th century publications, especially the topographical prints used to illustrate travel guides, popular in Victorian times and earlier. They have been collected for many years and often outlive the books from which they originate. We tend to buy them in large varied collections of up to a thousand or more. Similarly, most antique maps originate from old atlases. Whenever we know the actual source of a print, ie. the title and date of the original book, we will state this in our description. Both antique maps and prints were sometimes published as individual items, but this was much less common. How d
