Antiquarian Print Shop

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Antiquarian Print Shop A collection of rare and unique prints and maps that create a window into history and create a work of art for any home or office

I still remember the first time I held a John Gould bird print. It wasn't just the colour, it was the feeling that whoev...
17/07/2026

I still remember the first time I held a John Gould bird print. It wasn't just the colour, it was the feeling that whoever made this had actually watched this bird. Really watched it.

Here's the part people never expect: Gould rarely held the brush himself. The plates that carry his name were largely painted by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, working from his field notes. In 1838 the two of them travelled to Australia together to observe the birds firsthand, and the result became The Birds of Australia, one of the great works of natural history illustration.

Nearly two hundred years later, a Gould parrot still looks like it's about to hop off the page. That's not an accident.

We carry a number of original and reproduction Gould prints, each authenticated and researched before it reaches you. Link in bio if you'd like to start a collection that tells a story.

A William Morris print never quite looks "old," even though the patterns are over a century old. That's because Morris w...
17/07/2026

A William Morris print never quite looks "old," even though the patterns are over a century old. That's because Morris wasn't capturing a moment, he was capturing how a garden actually grows, tangled and alive.

Morris was one of the central figures of the Arts and Crafts movement, and his rule was simple: "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." Every leaf and bloom in patterns like Acanthus or Anemone came from close observation of real plants, then reworked by hand until it felt less like a grid and more like it was still growing.

He trained as an architect before textiles, which is why the busiest Morris pattern still feels balanced rather than chaotic.

These were always meant to be lived with, not locked away. Our William Morris prints are custom reproduced on museum-quality paper, framed, and ready to hang the day they arrive.

One of my favourite pieces in the collection is a map of a place you won't find on a modern atlas: Van Diemen's Land, th...
17/07/2026

One of my favourite pieces in the collection is a map of a place you won't find on a modern atlas: Van Diemen's Land, the name Tasmania carried until 1856.

What makes maps like this so collectable isn't just the cartography, it's the decoration around it. Mid-19th century atlases treated the border as its own artwork, illustrators filled the margins with vignettes of local life and landscape alongside the cartographer's coastline and towns. Part navigation tool, part gallery piece.

Holding one now, you're holding two things at once: a record of how a place was actually mapped, and a record of how it was imagined for people who'd never see it themselves.

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