Glossary of terms.
Over the years, I have seen maps described in many ways, some of which are misleading or just plain wrong. On this page I intend to clarify the meanings of some of the terms I use so that the descriptions on our site are as clear as possible.
Also there is some good information about printing, colouring techniques and trends, as well as some collectors' thoughts and opinions on these. I hope this is useful.
Map types and terms.
Genuine antique map: I use this term to describe a first generation print of a map from an original plate or source, printed on original paper close to the time of publishing. This term does in no way refer to any form of modern reproduction, copy or facsimile created after the date specified in the map description. All our maps are genuine, as per this terminology.
Reproduction, repro or facsimile: A modern copy of an older image, generally produced via digital processing and usually printed on new paper using laser printing equipment. They are - to the untrained eye - frequently and somewhat understandably mistaken for the real thing; they can appear to include the right things such as a plate mark and other content indicative of the real deal.
In monetary terms, repros are of no value to antique dealers and collectors of genuine antique maps, and are therefore never stocked or sold in the Antique Map Shop Ltd.
by: When a map is labelled as 'by' someone it can mean: the original draughtsman, who took the information gathered from a survey and created the first draught of the map. Or it can mean the engraver who, from the draught engraved the plates. It can also mean the publisher, who published, promoted and sold the finished maps both individually or bound in collections, or it can refer to a combination of the folks involved in these stages. John Cary, for example, was both the engraver and publisher of his maps; other personnel are less clear. For consistency - and if in doubt - I tend to label the maps with the name of the publisher, unless there is a more obvious alternative.
Copperplate engraved map: A map image engraved in reverse into a copper plate, usually by hand using engraving 'needles'. The engraved plate is then inked and paper, nearly always handmade paper, pressed onto it, thus creating the forward image. There is always a 'plate mark' with this kind of map: this can be seen as a thin line describing a rectangle (or square) with rounded corners, outside the map's border on all sides. There is a discernible, but often only slight, indentation where the plate was pressed against the paper. There is also and a darker mark left when the excess ink was not completely wiped off the metal in hasty preparation for the next copy. We always check that the 'plate mark' on our maps is authentic. Sometimes maps show evidence of a broken plate: perhaps a corner of the map border is missing, or there is a dark line suggesting a crack in the plate. These little quirks of the copper plate's history are sometimes useful in establishing from which published edition a particular map came.
Steel plate engraved map: As per copperplate above, but the engraving is a much more mechanised process, due to the harder, more durable nature of steel. The resulting maps are often very much more detailed in either text or graphics, or both. The paper is machine-made by this time and has markedly different properties from those of the handmade paper that preceded it.
Steel plates would be good for thousands of copies, as opposed to the hundreds that a copperplate would yield. These maps were coloured either by hand, by machine, or even a combination of the two ~ see below for more on this.
Wood block engraving: One of the earlier techniques used to create quantities of printed maps; map details were engraved into wood blocks in reverse, which were then inked and pressed on to handmade paper. Strangely, though steel plate work was common and efficient by the nineteenth century, wood block engraving was often used for short-lived pictures attached to news stories, purely for commercial reasons: examples can be found in publications such as the Illustrated London News and The Graphic. Some extraordinary coloured prints were made using multiple coloured wood blocks, with each block printing areas of a different colour; a rarely seen technique due to it being a complex and highly labour-intensive process. The results though are remarkable.
Colour/black & white/sepia Lithograph: Thought to have been invented in Germany by Alois Senefelder towards the end of the 18th century, lithography was more developed and complex form of printing. Maps (and other graphics) were applied to a prepared piece of limestone, with a greasy, viscous ink or paint. This acted as a barrier to the stone's 'pores', so when the stone was dampened, its porous nature absorbed the water only from the areas not sealed by the barrier paint. This left the desired graphic area, in effect, 'dry'. An oil-based ink was applied to the stone, adhering only to the 'dry' areas. Paper was pressed on to the wet ink, and the lithograph achieved. Colour lithograph techniques soon developed (with varying degrees of success), and remained in use until reliable photographic methods took over, well into the 20th century.
Print: Although all our maps are in essence first generation prints from the original plates on paper from the time of publishing, I use the word 'print' to refer to engraved graphic pictorials such as: panoramic or perspective views of cities or towns, detailed engraved pictures of buildings, flora and fauna, engraved portraits, caricatures or scenes: on this site, it does not refer to modern copies or reproduced maps.
Dessicated: If a map is labelled dessicated, it has nothing to do with coconuts. This term means that it has been cut into smaller sections, usually to be attached to a linen backing cloth. This method was a frequently employed for larger folding maps: the most efficient way to protect the map and avoid weakness from regular folding and unfolding. Though there are gaps where the pieces are joined, there should be no information loss. 19th century dessicated folding maps are sometimes found complete with their original cardboard 'slip case'.
Flourished: Often abbreviated to 'Fl.', this term is sometimes used to indicate the time or times when a mapmaker/engraver/publisher was most active or successful. It sometimes appears: if the map maker's business existed for only a short time, when the map maker was renowned for a small number of extraordinary maps, or when the person's birth and death dates are simply not known.
Map content, conditions and colouring.
Condition notes: These are found at the end of each map's description as a guide to the amount of/lack of damage'; best used in conjunction with the magnified photos:
Very good condition = no stains, blemishes, creasing, or other obvious physical damage.
Good condition = almost perfect, with no paper loss/image loss, but perhaps with minor restoration, age staining, fading, creasing etc. (details are specified in each map's description).
Fair condition = significant damage and/or professional repairs, signs of neglect or bad, old repairs, often due to the misguided use of regular or parcel tape, or other acidic adhesives/repair material. As above, the type and level of damage is specified in each map description.
Dimensions: I measure maps from their outside edge of their printed verticle by horizontal borders, or as close to the plate mark as is practicable, in the case of copperplate engraved maps and prints. Most maps usually have physical margins of blank paper outside the printed border, to which I refer as 'plus/with good margins'.
Handmade paper: Some of the earliest quality handmade paper was made from a mulch of linen, rags and other waste textile material. Once mixed to a consistent texture, the paper was removed into trays made of a fine wire mesh, sometimes including a design woven into the mesh to leave a paper-maker's 'watermark'. Here the water is drained off and the paper left to dry between layers of felt, and then to air dry further. When backlit (or held up to the light), the resulting paper shows the deliberate watermarks and close horizontal lines made by the wire mesh. This process developed over time and recipes for varying combinations of fibrous materials enabled the production of a number of paper grades.
Machine-made paper: Sometimes known by the term, wove paper, machine-made paper began to appear from the early part of the nineteenth century. It was made more from wood pulp, as opposed to the rag and textile-rich paper used up to this point. Machine-made paper was processed much more, the quantity of the cheaper wood-pulp increasing with demand, and so was not of the same texture as handmade fibrous paper of previous centuries. The differences can be seen when the paper is backlit: it has a smoother, more even texture, finer lines and crisper watermarks. The paper is often a lighter colour due to the addition of chalk and bleaching agents, sometimes more brittle, and can be affected by 'foxing', (see above for more on this).
Original hand colouring: I use this term to describe colouring applied before or around the map's date of publication. Hand colouring was often quite crude or simplistic: perhaps just a single coloured line around the 'Hundreds' or other divisions of a county, or just its borders. A basic line, marking coasts or borders of a country, sometimes provides the only colour. This is usually described as original outline hand colouring. Some historians have suggested that Victorian era children were coerced into this work, probably barely paid in food, to save (and consequently make) the publisher more money. It's not known for sure if this was the case, and to what extent it may have happened but it may well have been true of some of the more commercial, 19th century maps. The majority, however, were coloured by practised, professional colourists, with often quite striking results.
Other maps maybe described as with hand colour wash: these have more 'filled-in' colour in the main body of the map.
Machine colouring: I use this term to refer to maps with colouring that was machine-printed via a series of dots or lines. Some early versions of this technique were finished by hand, especially the more multi-coloured intricate geological/scientific maps or town plans. Other earlier attempts at machine-printed colouring relied on overlaying a coloured print on top of the uncoloured version. This required absolute accuracy which, when not achieved, left some areas uncoloured and the corresponding antithetic areas unnecessarily coloured. The process naturally developed over time and by the end of the 19th century, more consistency in machine-colouring was commonplace.
Uncoloured (as per issue): I use this term to describe a black and white engraved printed map with no added colour, at the time of publishing or since. Some collectors prefer (and so collect) maps with no added colour, old or new.
Foxing: Small dark/grey spots in the paper caused by rusting/degenerating fragments of metal that remain in the finished paper from the original wood pulp used. This feature can usually be identified by the smaller, darker spot in the centre of the blemish: this point is the remaining remnants of the rusting metal. Importantly, handmade paper does not 'fox', so paper can usually be roughly dated by, amongst other things, the presence/absence of this type of damage.
en verso: From the Latin: inverso folio (on the turned leaf or on the turned page). In printing terms, this refers to the left-hand page of a book which reads from left to right, usually with an 'even' page number. In real terms on this site, I use this quaint archaic phrase to refer to what's on the back of the map: be it another map, text about the area depicted, or just that the page is blank. A blank reverse is sometimes critical in establishing which edition a map is and other information such as: the publisher, the approximate year of publishing and even the name/nationality of the engraver in some cases.
Off-setting or Set-off: Both these terms describe a feature is caused by ink leeching into one print from another (or from the folded opposite half of the same plate). This tends to occur when, generally, 18th-century maps printed on handmade paper are bound or folded when still damp from the printing process, or from environmental conditions. It generally appears as a mirror image of a part of the map.
Hundred(s): Introduced by the Saxons around A.D. 613 and developed over the next four centuries or so, these subdivisions of counties were upheld and used for taxation, military and legal purposes under common law. They also represented a 'half-division' between established 'Parishes' and whole 'Shires'. The system of Hundreds was ever-changing and many regions differ enormously from their record in the Domesday Book. Some Hundreds in England are still used for taxation purposes and some have disappeared entirely. There were of course exceptions too: the county of Sussex was notably divided into four 'Rapes', and some mapmakers denoted northern county divisions as 'Wapentakes' or 'Wards' (see below).
Wapentakes: Some northern counties of England (Durham, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire etc.) show sub-divisions within the counties, not as 'hundred', but as 'Wapentake' or the abbreviation,'Wapent'. From early Viking invasions of this area, this term is likely to be derived from the old Norse word, 'vápnatak'.
Also there is some good information about printing, colouring techniques and trends, as well as some collectors' thoughts and opinions on these. I hope this is useful.
Map types and terms.
Genuine antique map: I use this term to describe a first generation print of a map from an original plate or source, printed on original paper close to the time of publishing. This term does in no way refer to any form of modern reproduction, copy or facsimile created after the date specified in the map description. All our maps are genuine, as per this terminology.
Reproduction, repro or facsimile: A modern copy of an older image, generally produced via digital processing and usually printed on new paper using laser printing equipment. They are - to the untrained eye - frequently and somewhat understandably mistaken for the real thing; they can appear to include the right things such as a plate mark and other content indicative of the real deal.
In monetary terms, repros are of no value to antique dealers and collectors of genuine antique maps, and are therefore never stocked or sold in the Antique Map Shop Ltd.
by: When a map is labelled as 'by' someone it can mean: the original draughtsman, who took the information gathered from a survey and created the first draught of the map. Or it can mean the engraver who, from the draught engraved the plates. It can also mean the publisher, who published, promoted and sold the finished maps both individually or bound in collections, or it can refer to a combination of the folks involved in these stages. John Cary, for example, was both the engraver and publisher of his maps; other personnel are less clear. For consistency - and if in doubt - I tend to label the maps with the name of the publisher, unless there is a more obvious alternative.
Copperplate engraved map: A map image engraved in reverse into a copper plate, usually by hand using engraving 'needles'. The engraved plate is then inked and paper, nearly always handmade paper, pressed onto it, thus creating the forward image. There is always a 'plate mark' with this kind of map: this can be seen as a thin line describing a rectangle (or square) with rounded corners, outside the map's border on all sides. There is a discernible, but often only slight, indentation where the plate was pressed against the paper. There is also and a darker mark left when the excess ink was not completely wiped off the metal in hasty preparation for the next copy. We always check that the 'plate mark' on our maps is authentic. Sometimes maps show evidence of a broken plate: perhaps a corner of the map border is missing, or there is a dark line suggesting a crack in the plate. These little quirks of the copper plate's history are sometimes useful in establishing from which published edition a particular map came.
Steel plate engraved map: As per copperplate above, but the engraving is a much more mechanised process, due to the harder, more durable nature of steel. The resulting maps are often very much more detailed in either text or graphics, or both. The paper is machine-made by this time and has markedly different properties from those of the handmade paper that preceded it.
Steel plates would be good for thousands of copies, as opposed to the hundreds that a copperplate would yield. These maps were coloured either by hand, by machine, or even a combination of the two ~ see below for more on this.
Wood block engraving: One of the earlier techniques used to create quantities of printed maps; map details were engraved into wood blocks in reverse, which were then inked and pressed on to handmade paper. Strangely, though steel plate work was common and efficient by the nineteenth century, wood block engraving was often used for short-lived pictures attached to news stories, purely for commercial reasons: examples can be found in publications such as the Illustrated London News and The Graphic. Some extraordinary coloured prints were made using multiple coloured wood blocks, with each block printing areas of a different colour; a rarely seen technique due to it being a complex and highly labour-intensive process. The results though are remarkable.
Colour/black & white/sepia Lithograph: Thought to have been invented in Germany by Alois Senefelder towards the end of the 18th century, lithography was more developed and complex form of printing. Maps (and other graphics) were applied to a prepared piece of limestone, with a greasy, viscous ink or paint. This acted as a barrier to the stone's 'pores', so when the stone was dampened, its porous nature absorbed the water only from the areas not sealed by the barrier paint. This left the desired graphic area, in effect, 'dry'. An oil-based ink was applied to the stone, adhering only to the 'dry' areas. Paper was pressed on to the wet ink, and the lithograph achieved. Colour lithograph techniques soon developed (with varying degrees of success), and remained in use until reliable photographic methods took over, well into the 20th century.
Print: Although all our maps are in essence first generation prints from the original plates on paper from the time of publishing, I use the word 'print' to refer to engraved graphic pictorials such as: panoramic or perspective views of cities or towns, detailed engraved pictures of buildings, flora and fauna, engraved portraits, caricatures or scenes: on this site, it does not refer to modern copies or reproduced maps.
Dessicated: If a map is labelled dessicated, it has nothing to do with coconuts. This term means that it has been cut into smaller sections, usually to be attached to a linen backing cloth. This method was a frequently employed for larger folding maps: the most efficient way to protect the map and avoid weakness from regular folding and unfolding. Though there are gaps where the pieces are joined, there should be no information loss. 19th century dessicated folding maps are sometimes found complete with their original cardboard 'slip case'.
Flourished: Often abbreviated to 'Fl.', this term is sometimes used to indicate the time or times when a mapmaker/engraver/publisher was most active or successful. It sometimes appears: if the map maker's business existed for only a short time, when the map maker was renowned for a small number of extraordinary maps, or when the person's birth and death dates are simply not known.
Map content, conditions and colouring.
Condition notes: These are found at the end of each map's description as a guide to the amount of/lack of damage'; best used in conjunction with the magnified photos:
Very good condition = no stains, blemishes, creasing, or other obvious physical damage.
Good condition = almost perfect, with no paper loss/image loss, but perhaps with minor restoration, age staining, fading, creasing etc. (details are specified in each map's description).
Fair condition = significant damage and/or professional repairs, signs of neglect or bad, old repairs, often due to the misguided use of regular or parcel tape, or other acidic adhesives/repair material. As above, the type and level of damage is specified in each map description.
Dimensions: I measure maps from their outside edge of their printed verticle by horizontal borders, or as close to the plate mark as is practicable, in the case of copperplate engraved maps and prints. Most maps usually have physical margins of blank paper outside the printed border, to which I refer as 'plus/with good margins'.
Handmade paper: Some of the earliest quality handmade paper was made from a mulch of linen, rags and other waste textile material. Once mixed to a consistent texture, the paper was removed into trays made of a fine wire mesh, sometimes including a design woven into the mesh to leave a paper-maker's 'watermark'. Here the water is drained off and the paper left to dry between layers of felt, and then to air dry further. When backlit (or held up to the light), the resulting paper shows the deliberate watermarks and close horizontal lines made by the wire mesh. This process developed over time and recipes for varying combinations of fibrous materials enabled the production of a number of paper grades.
Machine-made paper: Sometimes known by the term, wove paper, machine-made paper began to appear from the early part of the nineteenth century. It was made more from wood pulp, as opposed to the rag and textile-rich paper used up to this point. Machine-made paper was processed much more, the quantity of the cheaper wood-pulp increasing with demand, and so was not of the same texture as handmade fibrous paper of previous centuries. The differences can be seen when the paper is backlit: it has a smoother, more even texture, finer lines and crisper watermarks. The paper is often a lighter colour due to the addition of chalk and bleaching agents, sometimes more brittle, and can be affected by 'foxing', (see above for more on this).
Original hand colouring: I use this term to describe colouring applied before or around the map's date of publication. Hand colouring was often quite crude or simplistic: perhaps just a single coloured line around the 'Hundreds' or other divisions of a county, or just its borders. A basic line, marking coasts or borders of a country, sometimes provides the only colour. This is usually described as original outline hand colouring. Some historians have suggested that Victorian era children were coerced into this work, probably barely paid in food, to save (and consequently make) the publisher more money. It's not known for sure if this was the case, and to what extent it may have happened but it may well have been true of some of the more commercial, 19th century maps. The majority, however, were coloured by practised, professional colourists, with often quite striking results.
Other maps maybe described as with hand colour wash: these have more 'filled-in' colour in the main body of the map.
Machine colouring: I use this term to refer to maps with colouring that was machine-printed via a series of dots or lines. Some early versions of this technique were finished by hand, especially the more multi-coloured intricate geological/scientific maps or town plans. Other earlier attempts at machine-printed colouring relied on overlaying a coloured print on top of the uncoloured version. This required absolute accuracy which, when not achieved, left some areas uncoloured and the corresponding antithetic areas unnecessarily coloured. The process naturally developed over time and by the end of the 19th century, more consistency in machine-colouring was commonplace.
Uncoloured (as per issue): I use this term to describe a black and white engraved printed map with no added colour, at the time of publishing or since. Some collectors prefer (and so collect) maps with no added colour, old or new.
Foxing: Small dark/grey spots in the paper caused by rusting/degenerating fragments of metal that remain in the finished paper from the original wood pulp used. This feature can usually be identified by the smaller, darker spot in the centre of the blemish: this point is the remaining remnants of the rusting metal. Importantly, handmade paper does not 'fox', so paper can usually be roughly dated by, amongst other things, the presence/absence of this type of damage.
en verso: From the Latin: inverso folio (on the turned leaf or on the turned page). In printing terms, this refers to the left-hand page of a book which reads from left to right, usually with an 'even' page number. In real terms on this site, I use this quaint archaic phrase to refer to what's on the back of the map: be it another map, text about the area depicted, or just that the page is blank. A blank reverse is sometimes critical in establishing which edition a map is and other information such as: the publisher, the approximate year of publishing and even the name/nationality of the engraver in some cases.
Off-setting or Set-off: Both these terms describe a feature is caused by ink leeching into one print from another (or from the folded opposite half of the same plate). This tends to occur when, generally, 18th-century maps printed on handmade paper are bound or folded when still damp from the printing process, or from environmental conditions. It generally appears as a mirror image of a part of the map.
Hundred(s): Introduced by the Saxons around A.D. 613 and developed over the next four centuries or so, these subdivisions of counties were upheld and used for taxation, military and legal purposes under common law. They also represented a 'half-division' between established 'Parishes' and whole 'Shires'. The system of Hundreds was ever-changing and many regions differ enormously from their record in the Domesday Book. Some Hundreds in England are still used for taxation purposes and some have disappeared entirely. There were of course exceptions too: the county of Sussex was notably divided into four 'Rapes', and some mapmakers denoted northern county divisions as 'Wapentakes' or 'Wards' (see below).
Wapentakes: Some northern counties of England (Durham, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire etc.) show sub-divisions within the counties, not as 'hundred', but as 'Wapentake' or the abbreviation,'Wapent'. From early Viking invasions of this area, this term is likely to be derived from the old Norse word, 'vápnatak'.