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Meetings of antiquarian collectors frequently hold sessions where favour-
ite maps are presented by owners. These tales often revolve around cer-
tainty and control: the map is 'discovered', its significance explained.
Selling or dealing is very much not a part of this space: instead the exper-
tise and taste of the collector is on display in front of peers, identity is
embodied in the object and its narration.
5.4 The social collector
The different actors and institutions in the antiquarian map collecting field
are rarely separate or bounded. Librarians become academics, dealers also
collect, dealers become librarians, collectors become experts etc. The
largest antiquarian dealers either started out as humble collectors, or inher-
ited the business. Maps pass from dealer to collector and back to dealer.
Disposal may lead to collections being auctioned off and split up, or
bequeathed to a public collection (Karrow 2001).
Tensions exist between these roles. Poorer collectors resent what they
perceive to be unaffordably high prices charged by dealers; librarians are
appalled at atlas breaking and resent collectors who want to keep their
accumulated riches away from public view. However despite the apparently
anti-social nature of the desire to accumulate antiquarian maps, social
inter-relations are central in antiquarian map collecting practice. Map col-
lecting societies organise regular meetings, visits and conferences and pub-
lish newsletters or journals and are thriving (see Barrow 2003).
A brief consideration of IMCoS events illustrates the central importance of
continuing face-to-face contact. The key event is the International Sympo-
sium, with presentations, visits, receptions and cultural trips. The pace is
leisurely, with plenty of time for participants to enjoy each others' com-
pany, eat and drink well. Most members attending events are older or
richer or both. More men participate, but significant numbers of women
attend, very many more than participate in everyday collecting (see below).
Visits at the International Symposium evoke the cultural values of the
institution, and its members: high, establishment culture is worthy of a
visit. More local visits are also appropriately high-brow. These events are
recalled in articles and pictorial images in the IMCoS Journal .
So an interest in antiquarian mapping signals membership of an elite
group. Discerning collectors need money to buy rare and increasingly
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