Paper Ephemera at Round Top: Maps, Prints, Postcards, and Vintage Books

A 1932 Texas Highway Department road map was sitting in a $5 box at Warrenton last spring. Same map, framed and priced, was $85 at a booth three rows over. Same condition, same year, same printer. The difference was that one dealer knew what they had and one didn't — and that's the entire economy of paper at Round Top.

Paper ephemera is the most under-shopped category at Round Top. Most visitors walk past tables of vintage prints, maps, postcards, and books on their way to furniture and decor. The result: insane bargains for anyone willing to slow down and look.

What Counts as Ephemera

Strictly, "ephemera" means printed material that wasn't meant to be saved — tickets, programs, advertisements, brochures, letters. Loosely, it covers the entire paper category at antique shows:

• Antique maps — folding road maps, atlas pages, framed wall maps
• Vintage prints — botanical, ornithological, architectural, fashion plates
• Travel posters — Texas, national parks, railroad, airline
• Postcards — real photo postcards (RPPCs), holiday postcards, advertising postcards
• Trade cards — Victorian-era advertising cards, often beautiful chromolithography
• Vintage magazines — Life, Look, Vogue, Texas Monthly back issues
• Leather-bound books — decorative book lots and individual collectible volumes
• Sheet music — cover art, especially 1900-1940
• Photographs — cabinet cards, tintypes, stereoviews
• Letters and documents — handwritten correspondence, legal documents, deeds

Where to Look at Round Top

Paper is everywhere, but it concentrates at:

• Warrenton — the bulk of cheap, untouched paper. Boxes under tables are where the deals are.
• Marburger Farm — specialist paper dealers with high-end framed prints and maps
• Bar W — a few dealers focused on books and prints
• Big Red Barn — mixed, but a couple of regulars carry good map inventory
• The Compound — decorative paper that's been curated for design appeal

The dealers who specialize in framed prints have moved their stock to higher venues, where designers shop. The unframed, raw paper sits at Warrenton.

Antique Maps: What to Pay

Folding road maps (1920s-1960s): $5-$45 unframed, $60-$200 framed. State maps, oil company maps, and Texas-specific maps run higher.

Atlas pages (1850-1920): $25-$150. The big drivers are hand coloring, regional specificity (a single state or country), and condition. Texas maps from this era can hit $400+.

Wall maps (schoolroom pull-down style): $150-$600. These are pricey because they're hard to find intact. The 1940s-1960s schoolroom maps are most common.

Antique world maps: $200-$2,000+. Pre-1800 maps are rare at Round Top but show up at Marburger Farm.

Texas-specific maps carry a premium at Round Top. A 1920s Texas oil field map at Warrenton last fall was $180 — the same map in Austin or Houston would have been $400.

Vintage Prints

The print category is enormous. The good news: at Round Top, prices are generally below east coast or California markets.

Botanical prints (Audubon-style): $40-$300 for late 19th-century chromolithographs. Genuine 18th-century botanical prints with hand coloring start at $200 and run into the thousands.

Bird prints (audubon, gould): Real Audubon octavo edition prints (1840s) run $400-$1,500 each. Decorative reproductions are $20-$80.

Architectural prints: $60-$400. Especially nice for designer-driven buying.

Fashion plates (1800s): $25-$120. These hold up wonderfully framed as a series.

Pop-art era prints (1960s-70s): $80-$500 for original silkscreens or lithographs by known artists.

Postcards: The Sleeper Category

Postcards are the cheapest entry into paper collecting. Most cards at Round Top run $1-$10 each, but the rare ones can hit $200+.

What's actually valuable:

• Real photo postcards (RPPCs) of specific Texas towns, businesses, or events — $20-$200
• Halloween postcards (1900-1920) — $15-$80 each
• Disaster postcards (floods, fires, train wrecks) — $25-$150
• Early Coca-Cola advertising postcards — $30-$200
• Famous people postcards (sports, entertainment) — varies wildly

The "$1 box" strategy: dig through every $1 box at Warrenton. You're looking for RPPCs of small Texas towns. A real photo postcard of a long-gone Round Top, Carmine, or Brenham business in 1915 is worth $40-$100, easy.

Trade Cards

Victorian trade cards (small advertising cards, often die-cut with beautiful chromolithography) were given away with purchases from 1875-1900. They're abundant and underappreciated.

Price ranges:

• Common trade cards: $2-$10 each
• Tobacco trade cards: $10-$50 each
• Civil War-era trade cards: $25-$150 each
• Themed sets (complete): $80-$400

They display beautifully framed in groupings. A grid of 12 trade cards in a single frame makes a stunning piece for $50-$120 in materials.

Vintage Magazines

Most vintage magazines aren't valuable individually but are great for graphic design and tear sheets. Exceptions:

• First issues of major magazines: $50-$500+
• Magazines with famous people on the cover (Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, JFK): $40-$300
• Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues, pre-1980: $30-$200
• Texas Monthly debut and early years: $40-$150 each
• Vogue and Harper's Bazaar pre-1960: $20-$200 depending on cover and condition

For decorative use, buy lots. A stack of 20 mid-century Life magazines for $40 is a great deal and gives you a hundred tear-sheet possibilities.

Books

Decorative books versus collectible books are two very different markets at Round Top.

Decorative books are sold by the foot or by lot, valued for their leather binding and visual appeal regardless of content. Expect $5-$15 per book, $30-$60 per foot of shelf space.

Collectible books are valued by edition, condition, and author. First editions of major American authors, signed copies, and pre-1850 books all carry real value. Key authors to watch for:

• J. Frank Dobie (Texas regional writer) — $40-$400
• Larry McMurtry first editions — $80-$1,000+
• Cormac McCarthy first editions — $100-$2,500+
• Anything signed by a notable Texas author — premium

Always check the copyright page and look for "First Edition," "First Printing," or the number line ending in "1."

Condition: What Matters

For paper, condition is everything.

Foxing — those brown spots on old paper — is acceptable in moderation. Heavy foxing kills value.

Tears, especially in maps and prints, drop value 50-80%. Edge tears can be repaired; tears through the image are killers.

Trim marks — has someone cut the margins? This destroys value on prints and maps. Look for original deckled or untrimmed edges.

Mounting damage — old prints glued onto backing boards. Often unfixable. The print is worth roughly 30% of an unmounted example.

Water damage — staining, wavy paper, mold. Skip these unless they're priced for the damage.

Negotiating on Paper

Paper dealers come in two flavors. The print specialists with framed work at $400+ don't negotiate much — maybe 10%. The "box of mixed paper" dealers at Warrenton will negotiate constantly — make an offer on the lot, not individual pieces.

A great strategy: "I'll take this stack for $X." Pull together 5-10 pieces, ask for a bundle price. You'll often get 40-50% off the marked totals.

How to Display Paper at Home

Paper looks best in collections and groupings, not as one-offs. A grid of nine 8x10 framed botanical prints will outshine a single huge print every time. Same with maps, postcards, and trade cards.

Frame from a professional framer, or use ready-made frames from a good source. Avoid glass on anything light-sensitive — use UV-filtering acrylic or museum glass. Watercolors and chromolithographs fade fast in direct sunlight.

Where to Start

If you're new to paper at Round Top, start with maps under $50. They're abundant, they look great framed, and you'll quickly develop an eye for the good stuff. From there, branch into prints or postcards based on what catches your eye.

Walk every Warrenton booth and check the boxes under the tables. That's where the unsorted paper lives. The dealer who priced an estate find at $5 because they didn't recognize it just made your weekend.

Browse vendors on Round Top Finder to find paper specialists, and use the map to plan your hunt before you arrive.