1777 W. Faden Philadelphia Map
GUEST: I brought a map of Philadelphia circa 1770s. It was a part of my aunt's estate, and I purchased it from the estate after her death. I thought it was charming, and I love Philadelphia, and I spent a lot of time there as a young man, so I wanted the piece.
APPRAISER: May I ask how much you paid for it from the estate? About $750. Do you have any idea when your aunt may have purchased this map or how she acquired it?
GUEST: I, I really don't know the background of when she purchased the map. I got the map from the estate about 2006.
APPRAISER: Well, this is a copperplate-engraved map. The publisher is a London publisher named William Faden, and his father was also a printer, as well. And Faden created an atlas of North America that was published in London. He was a royal cartographer, the official cartographer for the king, and so he printed a lot of very important maps. It was published in 1777. This map would have been popular in 1777 because of the beginning of the American Revolution. And because Philadelphia was the seat of the Continental Congress, people wanted to understand, in Europe, overseas, exactly what the layout was of the city, and you can see the grid of the city in here, and then the outlying towns, including all of the owners of property. It was patterned after a map that was engraved in 1752 by these cartographers here. Scull and Heap did the survey. It also had an image of the state house, but it had it at the top. Faden made the map larger, and he moved the illustration of the state house down to the bottom. We can identify a first and second state of this map by looking at this island here, right between Hog Island and Mud Island. In the first state of this map, this island in between has absolutely no name and no features on it. So that's how we know that this is a, a second state. If you look at the legend, we have locations A, B, and C. And if you look down here, you'll see that those are batteries.
GUEST: Batteries are, are assortment of cannons.
APPRAISER: Exactly. It has these horizontal folds, meaning that this map was most likely originally in an atlas. When I was talking about the original version of this map, the Scull and Heap survey that was published in 1752...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: That map is very, very rare, to the point where some people in the trade just call it unobtainable. As the 1777 version of this map, it still isn't very common. In the last 20 years, there have been about three coming up for auction. I would say it should sell between $7,000 and $9,000 at auction.
GUEST: I'm proud to have it. It's not, not something I feel like I'll let go of. I love to show it.
$7,000 - $9,000 Auction
Featured In
episode
Junk in the Trunk 10
Discover never-before-seen surprises from our Season 24 tour. One is worth up to $100K!
Books & Documents
appraisal
Dr. Seuss “Kangaroo Bird," ca. 1938
appraisal
1903 Jack London Call of the Wild Book with Letter
appraisal
1903 - 1908 Camera Work Magazines
appraisal
1851 First Edition "Pearl of Great Price"
Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.
