GUEST: I was at a paper and print show in New York about 15 years ago. I've always collected historical documents or anything on the Philippines-- I'm a Filipino. So I saw the Philippines on this map. So I was immediately interested. It's bigger than it would show in other maps. But the more I looked, the more intriguing the, the map looked to me, because of the age, and it looked like it might have been commissioned by the king.
APPRAISER: And how much did you pay for this wonderful map?
GUEST: Between $275 and $300.
APPRAISER: The map was published in 1664. And it's by Pierre Duval, who was a cartographer. And he was appointed geographer to the king.
GUEST: Ah.
APPRAISER: Do you know which king it was?
GUEST: Uh...
APPRAISER: It was the Sun King. Louis XIV.
GUEST: Oh, Louis XIV.
APPRAISER: Yes, and so, he was interested in geography and history. And he employed Mr. Duval as his mapmaker. So he puts that on the map to look more of an authority. He says, "Geographer to the King of France with Privilege." Now at the time, he was a geographer, but he wasn't running around Asia doing his own triangulation.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: He was using sailors' accounts and other people's maps to make this.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: So it's accurate for the time, but there is quite a bit of distortion, like you pointed out in the Philippines. They're stretched out and larger than they are.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Right now, a retail value for the map would be about $1,500.
GUEST: Thank you so much.
