1645 Magni Ducatus Lithuaniae Atlas Map
GUEST: It's an old map of Lithuania, and it was given to my father from a prominent Detroit resident. My father was an oncologist, and he treated the man's wife. My dad is Lithuanian. He was a displaced refugee between the First and Second World War. He was displaced from, uh, Lithuania by Stalin. He was arrested and thrown into a Russian forced labor camp. And then when the Germans invaded during the Second World War, they liberated his camp and put him into a German forced labor camp.
APPRAISER: How old was he at the time?
GUEST: He st, he was arrested at the age of 13. As the Germans pulled out of what became the Soviet Union, he was pulled out with them. And he did stuff like digging tank traps and stuff like that. And he ended up in Frankfurt at the end of the war. As part of the Marshall Plan, the U.S. government paid for his education. With an eighth-grade education, he went to the University of Frankfurt until he got his medical degree and then came to the United States via the U.S. Army, so... (chuckles)
APPRAISER: Well, incredible story.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: What an, what an appropriate gift.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: This is a map of Lithuania, uh, which includes parts of Poland and Ukraine and Russia. And it was commissioned by Prince Radziwill, whose name is on the title cartouche.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And he hired...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...the most famous cartographer of the region, his name was Strubicz, to do the survey.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: The prince wanted the best map of Lithuania that was out there, 'cause one didn't exist.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: So, this is what's called a mother map. This is the first map of the area that was surveyed properly, and it really influenced every map of this region for the next couple of hundred years.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: So, the cartouche in the corner...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...is, uh, the Lithuanian coat of arms.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And below it, it says-- in Latin, so it's hard to read...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...Guilhelm Janssonius, which is the name of Guillem Blaeu. So, he changed his name right after he made this map.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: So it's very hard to identify it as him, because he doesn't use the name that he used after this.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And below it is en, the engraved date of 1613, and it was engraved by a famous engraver, a Hessel Gerritsz. The 1613 map was a wall map, separately issued.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And they didn't change the date on the map as they released new editions. Your edition is the seventh version of the map, and it's from 1645.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And the only reason we know that is a tiny change in one of the towns.
GUEST: Hm.
APPRAISER: Der Memel on the Baltic is named there, and that is a guarantee that it was made in 1645. And it was, in fact, an atlas map.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: So it was tipped into a, a book. The map was produced in Amsterdam...
GUEST: Mm.
APPRAISER: ...and it was engraved onto plates and finished by hand with watercolor.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: It's the most beautiful version of this map I've ever seen. In a retail setting, a map of this caliber...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...even though it's the seventh state, would be in the value range of $7,000 to $8,000.
GUEST: Mm-hmm, that's great, great-- yeah, it's not going anywhere. We'll keep in the family forever.
$7,000 - $8,000 Retail
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