by Susan Abraham Well...yesterday, I bought my first antique map (1840) from Cecil Court on Charing Cross Road, London. Its titled Guinea, Negerita & Senegambia. AbeBooks transformed my material universe by sending me pictures of maps as storytelling charts with antiquarian ones exhibiting colourful illustrations of pirates, whales, tribal peoples, etc. My friend, Jacqueline Greaves added on the magic. I had never viewed maps in this way before. Theyre expensive as these are original engravings that can be auctioned off later. Then I did come across one that I could afford, that held my heart & wouldnt have blown a hole in my budget. It was of West Africa, with names that floated in my senses like a strange, invisible light. Guinea, Nigerita & Senegambia. What fantastic words! I felt intoxicated reading these names over & over. I may have been a traveller even in my last life. I went to the shop that specialised in antique maps, with the words still dancing in my head. I cautionedd the bookseller that I was really new to this world but completely fascinated for an unknown reason & that it probably had to do with my love of storytelling, explorations & voyages. He was friendly & polite and gave me a few vitals tips on how to purchase a map. Mine like the others, has labels at the back that introduces it as a genuine antique, published in 1840. It has a reference number & the details of the shop that sold it to me. It was originally sold in a shop in London sometime in 1840 and would have been viewed by either the naval, sailors, an explorer wanting to go into Africa, merchants for trade etc. I realised too how closely connected my map was to my love of Arabic literature. Sudan was spelled Soudan or otherwise, it was referred to as Negerita. The Sahara was called Country of the Great Desert. The Tuareg tribes that ruled over the Sahara were marked as The Tuariks. And wow... I was just blown away with my individualism having evolved so unexpectedly, yet again.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 07:22:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015