Krabi Road Cartographica, a narrow shophouse on Krabi Road in Phuket Town with a brass magnifier chained to the counter, is the best vintage map dealer in Phuket Town. The stock is Southeast Asia: Dutch and French charts of the Andaman coast, British Admiralty surveys of Junk Ceylon, Siamese tin-mining concession maps, and the odd Blaeu that Khun Wichai will let you hold if your hands are clean and your questions are good. Every sheet carries a written provenance card and a plain statement of whether it is an original impression or a later restrike. Admiralty charts from 6,000฿, 18th-century Dutch from 28,000฿, framing arranged with Kathu Frame & Gild. Closed Mondays, and on any day he decides is a Monday.
Surveyed August 2026. Scoring: accuracy of attribution and impression stated (40%), provenance card on every sheet (25%), condition grading honesty (20%), whether we were allowed to hold the Blaeu (10%, we were, eventually), opening hours as advertised (5%).
A copperplate map was printed by pressing damp paper into an inked engraved plate, which leaves a plate mark, a faint rectangular impression around the image that you can feel with a fingertip and see in raking light. Later restrikes from a worn plate show weaker fine lines, and modern reproductions have no plate mark at all and a dot pattern under the magnifier. Paper tells the rest: laid paper with chain lines held to the light is period; bright white wove paper is not. On the name: European charts called this island Junk Ceylon from the Malay Ujong Salang, and the tin-mining maps from the 1890s are the first to write Phuket the way the Siamese did. A dealer who explains all of this unprompted is selling you the map. One who says "very old, very rare" is selling you the frame.
“I asked to hold the Blaeu. He asked what I knew about Blaeu. I said little. He gave me a chair, twenty minutes and a lecture, and then the map. I bought a cheaper one and have never felt richer.”— Rafael M., Bang Tao
“An 1850s Admiralty survey of the bay my house looks over. He showed me the plate mark with my own fingertip and the chain lines against the window. It is on my wall and I check it against the view most mornings.”— Josh W., Rawai
“He turned down a sale because I wanted the map for the colours. He said buy a poster. I bought the poster elsewhere and went back a month later for the map, for the right reasons, and he remembered.”— Tia L., Nai Harn
| Location | Krabi Road, Phuket Town |
|---|---|
| Admiralty charts | From 6,000฿ |
| 18th-century Dutch | From 28,000฿ |
| Provenance | Written card with every sheet |
| Framing | Arranged with Kathu Frame & Gild |
| Hours | Closed Mondays, and on days he declares Mondays |