Pierre Joppen

This year, 2018 is a very special year for me, as it marks my 40th year of selling maps and atlases! I have been formally educated as a graphic designer, and it is perhaps due to this

background that the aesthetics and the engraving and colouring aspects of Renaissance mapping especially attracted me.

I was born in the Netherlands, and in 1978, I opened a gallery selling old maps, and buying books under the name ‘Paulus Swaen’.

Living in a remote Dutch town, I quickly realised that I wanted to sell maps on an international stage, so in the 1990’s, I began making regular selling trips to Asia/America.

It was there that a professor in ‘informatics’ in Tampa wrote, in 1995, the script for my first ever-interactive map auction. ‘Paulus Swaen’ was the first to produce online catalogues, first to use high-resolution images, with ‘zoom in’ technology, and to introduce the HiBCoR grading system for maps.

After an unsettling armed hold up in my Netherlands Gallery, I decided to go fully Internet based, and quickly organised eight online auctions a year. In addition to these auctions, I sell from my own inventory, and divide my time between Florida/London/Paris.

I also realize that the physical contact with maps, and the personal contact with the collector is also vitally important, and therefore, I actively participate at map fairs in USA, England, France and Italy. I’m the co-organizer of the Paris map Fair, and was a member of the Miami map fair steering committee for many years.