When you buy a piece from us, you are buying a document of history — not a reproduction of one.
For more than fifty years, Antique Prints, Inc. has built its name on a single promise: that every map, print, and painting on our walls is exactly what we say it is. Authenticity is not a marketing line for us — it is the discipline of the trade, practiced daily across a collection that now exceeds 300,000 pieces. This page is our open invitation to look closely, ask questions, and understand precisely what makes a genuine antique worth collecting.
How We Authenticate
Every piece passes through the same disciplined examination before it ever earns a place in the gallery.
Paper Stock & Watermarks
We begin with the sheet itself. Genuine antique paper is laid or wove rag stock with a distinctive weight, tooth, and tone that machine paper cannot imitate. Held to light, period sheets often reveal a watermark or chain lines that date and place the mill — the first quiet signature of age.
Plate Marks & Printing Method
Under magnification we read how the image was made. An engraving or etching leaves an impressed plate mark and ink that sits in relief; a lithograph shows its tonal grain; a modern reproduction betrays the regular dot pattern of offset or inkjet printing. The method tells us the era — and rules out the copies.
Period-Correct Coloring
We examine pigments and application against what was actually available and practiced at the time. Original hand-coloring sits within the plate lines with the slight irregularity of a brush; anachronistic inks or perfectly registered color are tells of later work. Knowing the difference protects both the piece and its value.
Sourcing & Documentation
Finally we trace the line back: the atlas, estate, or collection a piece came from, and the chain of hands it passed through. Our half-century in the trade — and relationships built over decades — let us source with confidence and stand behind every origin we record.
What You're Actually Buying
The terms every collector — and every first-time buyer — eventually wonders about, explained plainly. Tap any to expand.
An atlas leaf is a single original page lifted from a bound antique atlas. When you buy, say, an 1868 atlas leaf of New Castle, you are holding an actual sheet printed and bound in 1868 as part of the first Atlas of Delaware by Beers & Pomeroy — not a scan or a copy of one.
Original color means the piece was colored at or near the time it was made, as the publisher intended. Hand-colored describes color applied by brush rather than printed — which may be original to the period or added afterward. Later coloring is color added well after publication, often to a sheet issued in black and white.
None of these is inherently wrong — but the distinction matters greatly to both meaning and value, so we always tell you which you are looking at.
An engraving (or etching) is printed from a metal plate cut with the image; the plate presses an impression into the paper and the ink sits slightly raised. A lithograph is printed from a flat stone or plate using the resistance of grease and water, producing soft tonal gradations. A reproduction is a modern photographic copy — offset or digital — of an older image, identifiable under magnification by its regular dot or pixel pattern.
A plate mark is the faint embossed rectangle left in the paper by the edge of an engraving plate pressed under the press — a hallmark of genuine intaglio printing. Foxing refers to the small brown age-spots that develop on old paper over time; in moderation it is a natural sign of age rather than a defect. Provenance is the documented history of a piece — where it came from and the hands it passed through — which supports both its authenticity and its story.
How to Spot a Reproduction
You don't need a loupe and forty years in the trade to tell the genuine from the copy. A few honest tells do most of the work.
What Age Looks Like
- ✦An impressed plate mark. Run a finger near the image edge — a real engraving leaves a faint embossed line you can feel.
- ✦Honest paper. Heavier rag stock, a warm uneven tone, occasional chain lines or a watermark visible against the light.
- ✦Ink with character. Under magnification, continuous lines and tones — not a uniform grid of dots.
- ✦Period wear. Gentle foxing, soft edges, plate tone, and color that sits with a brush's slight irregularity.
What to Watch For
- ✕A flat, dotted image. A loupe reveals the regular rosette of offset printing or the spray pattern of an inkjet.
- ✕Bright, even paper. Crisp white machine stock with a uniform surface and no watermark or chain lines.
- ✕No plate mark. The image sits flat on the sheet with no embossed impression around it.
- ✕Suspiciously perfect. Color in flawless registration, no age tone, and edges that look machine-trimmed yesterday.
Backed by Expertise, Documented for Life
Every piece we sell leaves the gallery with documentation of its age and origin. Behind that document stands a half-century in the trade and a depth of expertise you will not find at a weekend market.
If a piece is ever shown not to be as we represented it, we make it right. That is the whole point of buying from a gallery rather than a guess.
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A Curator's Eye
Kerry brings experience from Sotheby's and the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the authentication of every work.
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25+ Years at the Bench
Brandon's framing and handling expertise spans more than twenty-five years — all work done by hand, in-house, with acid-free, American-made materials.
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Documented Provenance
Each piece is accompanied by a record of its date and source, so its story travels with it for the next hundred years.
Hold a Piece of History
Browse the collection with confidence, or write to us with any question about a particular piece — its date, its origin, or how it was made. We are always glad to talk provenance.