Rare Atlas Goes For £670,000

That rare copy of the first printed atlas of England and Wales, regarded as a prime example of early map making, has sold for £669,600 (about $1.3 million) at a Sotheby's auction, the BBC reported:

The work, by the Wakefield surveyor Christopher Saxton, also has a rare set of charts depicting Sir Francis Drake's journey to the West Indies and America.

Printed between 1579 and 1590, it runs to 40 pages of maps and plates - a landmark in Elizabethan cartography, a spokesman for Sotheby's said.

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The charts illustrating Drake's voyage across the Atlantic from 1585 to 1586 were made by Giovanni Battista Boazio.

The atlas was purchased by an anonymous telephone bidder, and was sold at the high end of its expected price.

See also: Rare Elizabethan Atlas to be Auctioned