Altea Gallery

About

Altea Gallery offer a wide selection of superb antique maps, sea charts and atlases covering all parts of the world. Our stock ranges from the early printed maps of 1477 to about 1900; from miniature maps to large scale / wall maps, atlas produced maps and separately published broadsheets.

Massimo De Martini started trading as “Altea Maps” in 1992, exhibiting at the “Bonnington Antique Map Fair” which was held in London on a monthly basis as well as various other antique and book fairs.

As his business grew he acquired a shop in Camden Passage, one of the longest established London antique markets. Two years later he moved to a more central gallery space on Regent Street and more recently to the present location at the new “Altea Gallery”, in the heart of London’s Mayfair, opposite the Sotheby’s building.

Over the years he has earned a reputation for supplying high quality maps and atlases, at fair prices, to first-time buyers, experienced collectors and institutions all over the world.

In 1995 he led the “internet revolution” being among the first dealers in the map trade to offer a fully illustrated online map catalogue. We have always been very proud of this achievement, and as the leading force on the internet we became a point of reference for dealers and were copied many times over throughout the world.

Nowadays there are large numbers of internet sites offering antique maps as well as e-bay and online auctions. However, to our knowledge, only a handful of dealers can supply their customers with an exceptional item backed up by a full guarantee.

We all too often hear of horror stories experienced by unwary buyers misled by erroneous descriptions, reproductions and bad quality items available from unscrupulous dealers on the internet. So we maintain our goal to provide the best possible quality and value for money to our clientele whilst helping them to build their prized map collection for many years to come.

We are members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association, the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, the International Map Collector's Society, the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association and the International Antiquarian Mapsellers Association

We are joint organisers of the yearly “International London Map Fair”, which we host in June at the Royal Geographical Society. We are also exhibitors and active sponsors of the Miami International Map Fair, which is held every year in early February.