Major cities all over the world boast of at least one art gallery specialising in antique prints. The Gallery of Prints enjoys the distinction as the country’s first and only gallery to permanently offer antique maps and prints.
Aside from its very large collection of 16th century woodcuts, 17th and 18th century copper engravings, 19th century steel engravings and lithographs, the Gallery of Prints also offers antique books and publications specialising in but not limited to the Philippines. Themes cover a wide range including Southeast Asia, and the rest of the world, alongside maps and views, botany, zoology, costumes and architecture, all providing fascinating glimpses into world history.
The Great Seafaring Scam: How 18th-Century Traders and Explorers Mastered the Art of the Con
Picture this: You’re a British trader in the 1700s, eager to break into the lucrative fur trade along the Pacific. There’s just one problem—the Spanish and Portuguese have a stranglehold on the best routes, and your British flag might as well be a giant “Keep Out” sign. What do you do? If you’re John Meares, the answer is simple: reinvent yourself as a Portuguese merchant, slap a fake name on your ship’s papers, and sail on like nothing’s amiss.
Meares wasn’t alone in this high-seas charade. The 18th century was rife with traders, explorers, and outright swindlers bending the rules (and reality) to suit their ambitions. From pirates posing as privateers to merchants forging documents for access to restricted ports, the ocean was teeming with deception.
Take Alexander Dalrymple, a hydrographer who wasn’t exactly a con artist but had a knack for exaggerating discoveries and stretching the truth when it suited his career.And then there were the traders in the East Indies who conveniently “became” Portuguese Portuguese or Spanish when the situation called for it.
