Dreweatts auction house said the Ottoman atlas was the first printed in the Islamic World (Dreweatts/PA)
The atlas was discovered in an attic at Weston Hall in Northamptonshire.
The first atlas printed in the Islamic world has sold more than four times its estimate at auction after being discovered in an attic.
The “exceptionally rare” Ottoman folio atlas by Mahmoud Raif Efendi was sold for £86,250 recently by Dreweatts of Newbury, Berkshire.
It was one of only 50 produced and was among several discoveries made at Weston Hall in Northamptonshire, home of the Sitwell family for more than 300 years.
Dreweatts auction house said the Ottoman atlas was the first printed in the Islamic World.
It was found in “extraordinary” condition in one of the nine attics at Weston Hall, stamped and dated 1804, and featured a hand-colored pictorial title with the monogram of Sultan Selim III, the auction house said.
Written in Ottoman Turkish with 24 hand-coloured terrestrial maps, the atlas included two twin-hemispheres and one world, with a plain celestial chart.
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