14 DAY TRIAL // An original copy of the first official map of the State of Texas will be put up for sale at Heritage Auctions' Texana Signature Auction on March 15 in Dallas and it is expected to sell for no less than $150,000 (€109,000).
Patrick Martin of Birmingham, Alabama, is the proud owner of the rare map of Texas and he says it was in his family for nearly 150 years. The man had no idea he was keeping a treasure in his house until he took the map to an appraisal event last year and learned it was a very valuable piece of history.
“By the time it got to my hands it was sheer luck it hadn't been damaged. I remember looking it over when I was younger, 8, 10, 12 years old, unfolding it in my parents' basement. The map shows Indian territories and I thought Indians were cool,” said Martin, according to Personal Liberty Digest.
This is a first edition of the famous map of Jacob De Cordova, an early Jewish settler. De Cordova's Map of Texas was first issued in 1849 and published by Texas' General Land Office as the first official map of Texas.
Martin's copy is completely original and in unrestored condition. It measures 32" x 35 ¼" (81.28cm x 89.4cm) and shows counties, cities, colonies, roads, rivers, and even Indian villages. West Texas is practically absent from the map, and only a small part of the Panhandle is shown as settled.
What's more, the 165-year-old map of Texas is hand signed by Jacob De Cordova himself.
Martin’s family traces their copy to his great-great-grandfather Nicholas Martin, who fought in the Mexican-American War as a colonel, and his son Hudson, a Virginia attorney who helped settlers obtain land grants across the Lone Star State.
“The accuracy of this map, and its importance to understanding the development of Texas cannot be overstated,” said Joe Fay, manager of rare books at Heritage Auctions.
Only a few copies of this rare edition of the Texas map are known to exist. At least two of them are being held by institutions: one is included in Special Collections at the University of Texas, Arlington, and the other is held at the Rosenburg Library in Galveston, Texas.
In the last fifteen years, two other copies of the map have been sold at auction, one in 1999 by Siebert and the other by Dorothy Sloan Rare Books in 2013.