NEW YORK, NY.- An early book of maps of Hawaii has sold for 20 times its estimate at auction to take $68,750.

Dating to 1840, He Mau Palapala Aina A Me Na Niele No Ka Hoikehonua. No Na Kamalii, which translates as Maps and Geography for Children, topped the sale at Swann Auction Galleries in New York on December 17, when an extraordinarily rare, colourful and detailed Nuremburg chronicle of world history dating to 1493 sold for $62,500.

The geography and map book, a rare early survivor in the Hawaiian language, has eight engraved maps with original hand colouring in outline and shows maps of the world with brief text and geographical questions for the students.

It was created for pupils at Lahainaluna Seminary, a school on the island of Maui, where the mission was founded in 1823 and classes began in thatched huts in 1831.

The engraving is by George Luther Kapeau, a prolific student at the seminary who would later become a statesman and governor of Hawaii. There are fewer than ten known copies of this book and this is thought to be the first time one has appeared at auction.

The 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle – a profusion of woodcut diagrams, illustrations, and city views – includes several double-page maps of the world and a hand-coloured map of Europe.

The contents cover world history from Biblical Creation to the time of its publication. No other illustrated book printed in the fifteenth century rivals the scope and ambition of this enormous chronicle.