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INTRODUCTION
The OldMaps PriceFinder is a database that provides the most up-to-date pricing information on the antique map
market. The database currently contains over 16,000 maps from over 100 dealer and auction catalogs. We are
continuously adding maps to the database so the information will never be stale or out-of-date as is
often the case with printed price records.
The PriceFinder search engine lets you easily search through the large amount of data to quickly find the map
you are seeking. Please spend a few minutes to learn how to effectively use this powerful tool.
Keep in mind that the PriceFinder, while providing an extensive survey of the antique map market, is not
a complete record of all sales. If a specific map is not found, you can study comparable items
from the same period, cartographer or geographical region to assist you in determining an approximate value.
THE SEARCH ENGINE
Every PriceFinder record is divided into several 'fields', each containing a different type of data. This
allows the database to be searched in a variety of ways. The title, subject, cartographer/creator,
description, atlas, and geographical region fields can be searched as described below.
An important concept with all searches is the idea of using a partial word. It is usually better to use
as little of a word as needed. Searching for calif will return all instances of California, Californie,
and Californien. Alternately, searching for california will return only those records exactly matching
this spelling. Use full words only when you are looking for a very specific spelling and are willing
to miss potential typos or alternate spellings.
Case is not important: UPPER and lower case letters are treated equally. Common words (and, or, the) and
single letter words are usually ignored by the search engine. Additionally, punctuation (commas,
semicolons, etc) is not necessary in the search fields.
How to Search
The Search Center gives you complete control and flexibility over the records found. It allows you to
refine your search and find specific maps by adding search criteria in any or all of the individual fields.
When you search on more that one field the search is cumulative; an "AND" search. An example will simplify
this concept: searching for just the title word Calif will find all records with this partial word anywhere
in the title. Likewise, searching for creator John will find all maps created by Johnson, Johnston, etc.
Searching for both at the same time will find only those maps that match both search criteria.
On the other hand, searching for multiple words within the same field performs an "OR" search within that
field. A search for creator Mercator Hondius Jansson would return maps by any of these cartographers,
e.g. Mercator OR Hondius OR Jansson. Keep in mind that if you are searching multiple fields the OR
search is combined with the other field(s) as an AND search. Again, an example is worth a page of
techno-babble. Searching for creator Mercator Hondius Jansson plus the title word Nova will return
any map by any of these cartographers as long as Nova is in the title.
Title Words: The Title field has an additional select box that gives you extra flexibility on how
your search is executed. The select box offers the choice of finding: 1) only those maps with all
of the search words (this is the default); 2) maps containing any of the search words; or 3) maps
containing the exact title words from the beginning of the map's title. This last choice allows
you to find maps by the first few words of the title, e.g. A New Map of California. In this
case the 'common' words (the, of, and) are not ignored by the search engine.
The example above shows a typical search using the All Word title modifier. This search will return
maps whose titles contain both the words Nova and Orbis as long as the map was by Mercator, or
Hondius, or Jansson. This search returned 9 records as shown in the lower portion of the Search
Center. The actual returned records are not included in the image to save space.
The above search performed with the Any Word title modifier returns 130 records because either
of the words Nova or Orbis is in the title.
Search Description for Any Title Word: Checking this box will expand your search to find records
that have search words in either the Title or Description fields. This allows you to find maps
with specific areas of interest such as the Pony Express or the Spice Islands. This is also useful for
finding peoples names that might be in the description. However,
keep in mind that not all records have descriptions and therefore your search may not
return all maps matching your criteria.
Exclude Title Words: Enter word(s) you want to exclude from your search. For example, searching
for the title word world returns a large number of maps including maps of the world, new world,
ancient world, atlases of the world, etc. To exclude the ancient world maps, put the word ancient into this text box.
Geographical Searches: You may add geographical criteria to any search two ways.
1) The Subject Word(s) field allows you to find maps by geographical name. For example you can find
records by region by entering words like calif, paris, boston and so on. Words like title page, celestial, solar, polar
also work well. This field is similar to the Filter Region selection box described below and in
many cases is identical. For example, a U.S. state map will have the same information in both fields. However, a map of a
city might have the city name in the Subject and the state name in the Filter Region. You'll normally find the Subject
Words field to be the most useful. Remember that this criterion will be added to the other search criteria and
makes the search more restrictive.
2) The Filter Region drop-down selection box limits maps to those matching a specific geographical criterion,
e.g. World, Illinois, Scandinavia, etc.
Creator Surname: Enter the surname (s) of any cartographer or publisher you want to include in the search.
The search engine looks for a partial word, but only from the start of a word. In other words, a search
for smith in the Creator field will return maps by Smith, Smithsonian, etc, but will not return any by
Arrowsmith. DO NOT enter the full name of the cartographer, e.g. entering John Arrowsmith will return
all records for Arrowsmith, but also those for Johnson, Johnston, etc. There are alternative spellings
for a number of cartographers. The search engine has been enhanced to automatically look for the
alternate spellings for most cases, e.g., l'Isle and Delisle.
Atlas: This field acts differently from others in that what is entered is always treated as a phrase.
Entering Universal Atlas will show all maps from the atlas, assuming no other search criteria have
been entered. This search may be combined with other fields to finely control the results. For
example, searching for Universal Atlas returns maps from numerous cartographers. Adding Tanner
in the Creator field gives more specific results. Keep in mind that some dealers do not provide
information on the source atlas. Therefore, not all maps will be found using this field alone.
Limit by: The PriceFinder data comes from map dealers and auction houses. This select box
allows you to control which type records are displayed. You may select to see All records
(the default), just map Dealer records or just Auction records.
Records per Page: The default is 25 records displayed per page. You may choose 10, 25,
50 or 100 records per page. We recommend placing this setting to a higher number if you have
a fast Internet connection. If your search returns more records than can be displayed on
one page you can easily move between pages.
Sort Order: The search results are normally displayed in Title+Creator+Period
order. You can change the sort order with this select box to Period+Title, or to
Subject+Title+Period.
Helpful Hints
As a general rule, keep your searches as simple as possible at first, then add additional
search criteria if you want to further refine the search.
Remember to use partial words rather than spelling out the word exactly. You can then add
additional criteria to refine the search as you work to the exact set of maps you are seeking.
Case is not important to your search - UPPER and lower case letters are treated equally.
All searches are limited to a maximum of 500 records. You will receive a warning to create
a more specific search anytime your search returns more than 500 records. Using specific
searches will help you find the map you are seeking faster, and it reduces the load on
our server, so we can quickly reply to your requests.
The search engine ignores 'common' words (and, or, the, an, of) and all single letter words.
This is true for any search box, except the title search when you have selected the
Find all title words option.
It is common for catalogers to edit some older spelling patterns into their modern form.
The most common old spellings that are affected involve the letters u, v, s, and f.
The search engine has been enhanced to automatically look for the alternate
spellings with no intervention on your part, e.g. searching for tabvla
will also look for tabula.
Most character modifiers have been removed to facilitate your search. For example,
the ü character is converted to u, the æ is converted to ae, etc.
As with any database compiled from numerous, diverse sources there may be variations
in the way a cataloger has input the information. Some dealers abbreviate titles,
do not use subjects consistently, or attribute a map to the original cartographer
instead of the publisher when a map is re-issued. While the editors at OldMaps.com
have made a concerted effort to identify and correct obvious misspellings and
errors, it is not possible to correct all variations in such a large database.
There again, it is best to start with a simple search to find all potential
examples of the map you are trying to locate and then refine your search.
If you are experiencing trouble using the search engine, please email
our technical support for additional help.
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