The London Map Fair, established in 1980, is a two-day annual event traditionally held in June at the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington, London.
It brings together around 40 map dealers as exhibitors, and attracts hundreds of other dealers, curators and collectors from around the world. According to Ken Jennings, as of 2011 it was "Europe's largest event for buying and selling antique maps".[1] It is noted for being the largest specialist fair of its kind.[citation needed] Exhibitors offer a range of atlases, travel books, globes, nautical charts, town plans, topographical prints and related ephemera.
The fair also organizes lectures by cartographic experts, both mapsellers and academics. Guest speakers have included Peter Barber, former Head of Map Collections at the British Library; Laurence Worms, former President of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association, writer and broadcaster Nicholas Crane, author Alan Ereira and artist Adam Dant.
The fair also organizes talks on map collecting for beginners, held throughout the weekend.
The current organizers of the fair are Tim Bryars and Massimo de Martini.
References
edit- ^ Jennings, Ken (2011). Maphead : charting the wide, weird world of geography wonks. Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 79–80. ISBN 978-1-4391-6717-5. OCLC 687665983.