Bonhams Travel & Exploration Sale Realizes £534,438

In a sale that closed on 15 July 2026, Bonhams presented its specialized auction, Travel & Exploration: including the Roger Ward Photography Collection. The auction realized a total of £534,438,^[1] with 185 of 211 lots sold, representing an 87.7% sell-through^[1] rate. Bonhams published the official result page confirming these final figures. The sale brought together rare cartography, early photography, and travel art documenting global exploration from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries.

Among the notable offerings was a rare Spanish-edition atlas by Jan Blaeu, featuring hand-coloured engraved plans and maps mounted on guards. The auction also highlighted early ethnographic photography, including John William Lindt's albumen print views of New Guinea, taken during Sir Peter Scratchley's expedition to the Protectorate of British New Guinea. Additionally, the sale featured works from the collection of the late Roger Ward, such as a travel album compiled by the Italian artist Julius Blaas.

The top lot of the sale was the monumental atlas by Jan Blaeu, which carried an estimate of £180,000 to £220,000. The work contains hundreds of hand-coloured maps embellished with cartouches and allegorical figures. Fine art in the sale included Vera Southby's oil on canvas portrait of a Yunnanese boy, painted in 1928, which carried an estimate of £6,000 to £8,000. Southby's painting has a documented provenance with London dealer Martyn Gregory and the collection of Peter and Nancy Thompson in Hong Kong, and was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1928.

Early photography was represented by John William Lindt's 'Picturesque New Guinea' album containing 24 albumen print views, estimated at £5,000 to £7,000. Lindt accompanied the official expedition to the region, capturing images of indigenous groups and local villages. Another photographic highlight was the album compiled by Julius Blaas, containing 59 views documenting his travels from 1874-1875 through China, Japan, Penang, India, Sri Lanka, Java, and America, which carried an estimate of £4,000 to £6,000. The sale concluded with steady demand across early travel narratives, historical photography, and regional art.