A 300-Year-Old ‘Atlas Major’ Sold

A 300-year-old, 12-volume set of Johannes Blaeu’s “Atlas Major,” the most famous atlas in the history of printed maps, sold at Sotheby’s on Thursday for 110,000 pounds ($156,200), the auction house said.

The price paid by Amsterdam dealer Peter de Jonge was an auction record for any atlas by Blaeu, who produced his great work in Amsterdam in 1667. The set was sold by an anonymous private collector.

The volumes, bound in cream-colored vellum, contained 599 engraved maps, plans, views and plates, mostly double-page, and 21 additional double-page maps by other cartographers.