GUEST: My dad gave it to me.

He was working in China, in Hong Kong in the late '70s.

He worked for Philips Consumer Electronics.

Apparently, he was one of the first businessmen to be going into the area during the time; it was when China was opening up for the first time.

He says that it's like a farewell thank-you gift.

APPRAISER: When did he give it to you?

GUEST: Not too long ago.

They were downsizing their house, I said I liked it, he said, "it's yours."

APPRAISER (chuckling): Good choice.

GUEST: Yeah.

I do know that it is from 1628.

There's like a very handy, um, sign on the back that I'm guessing he put there.

He told me it was from a Dutch cartographer.

I hung it on my wall and I'd never thought about it again, basically, until my husband surprised me with tickets to the ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.

APPRAISER: Yes, it was printed in 1628, which is astonishing.

It's an engraving.

The coloring is original, and it's watercolor.

It was done by hand.

There's no name on here.

There's no indicator of who made it, and when I see these maps, the first thing I respond to is the moiré pattern in the ocean.

Hondius, who is the map maker, is famous for engraving that pattern to show waves.

The wave pattern is one of my little techniques I use to tell if it's old or not.

And then, also, the frame is open in the back, so we're able to see that there's text, which is in French, and that's a good way to tell that it's 17th century as well.

Your father wrote a note that said "Mercator Hondius," and that is correct.

Mercator Hondius was a partnership.

Gerard Mercator started the project and couldn't finish it, so Jodocus Hondius bought the plates from the family and issued these maps to complete the project.

So, they call it like the Dream Team of the 17th century for map makers.

This map was printed in Amsterdam, and that was the center of production for mapping in the 17th century.

There's a lot of pictorial elements to it.

There's boats, there's sea monsters.

There's also an image of someone on a cross, and the text below describes that in Japan, in the 17th century, Christianity was outlawed, so Jesuits in Japan were executed.

The other thing I do when I look at maps of China, is I look for the Great Wall, which is really well-illustrated here, and it's very, very big.

The other thing I find fascinating is that Korea is so elongated and it's shown as an island.

So, they're getting there with their geographical techniques, but not quite yet.

There's so many rivers and lakes and mountains.

It's a baroque beauty.

In terms of value, do you have any idea what it's worth?

GUEST: I have absolutely no idea.

APPRAISER: Okay, well, maybe we shouldn't tell your dad (laughing) No, I'm just kid-- I just-- it's, it's, um, so it's a multiple, many, many thousands of this map were made.

We don't know how many survive.

Yours is in particularly good condition, and I would put a retail value on this map of about $3,500 to $4,500.

GUEST: That's awesome.

That's so cool.

APPRAISRE: Thank you so much.

GUEST: I really love it.

Yeah, that's great.

Thank you.