1575 Map of Cambridge
![](https://www-tc.pbs.org/prod-media/antiques-roadshow/__sized__/Images/Richmond_20130817_02/201308T17/201308T17_00-crop-c0-43__0-46-676x380.jpg)
GUEST:
I purchased it from a local auction house. There were three items in the group. I paid $275 for all three. And I'm just trying to figure out how old it is and what the value is. It appears to have some age to it, but I wasn't really sure if it was legitimate or not.
APPRAISER:
Okay. Well, you might be surprised that it's almost 450 years old. In fact, it is from the first collection of views of the world that was done in Europe. About 1575. It's from a book called the Civitates Orbis Terrarum, or "Cities of the World." This is, as you know, Cambridge. And you can see this is what the Elizabethan English were wearing at the time. Not only is it that old, but the color is that old. This is actually the original color, put on about 1575. Now, all that is the good news. There's some serious bad news here, which is this is mold. And mold is bad, bad, bad. If you do not treat this, this map is going to die. It's going to be eaten up and it's just going to go away. Now, in terms of the value as it is, you can sell this in a retail shop for about $1,800. So a fair bit. If it were in perfect shape, it would be worth about $2,500. Once you remove that, it would probably be about a $2,000, maybe $2,100 map.
GUEST:
Pretty good.
Appraisal Details
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