Map Accessories

What turns a map into a record

A wooden map is decoration until something is added to it. The moment a pin goes into a country, it stops being a picture of the world and becomes a record of yours, and that is the only difference between the two.

Everything in this collection does that job, and each does it differently.

Which pin for which job?

A flag names a country. It is the obvious marker and the one most people start with, and it works because it needs no explanation to a visitor standing in front of the map.

A plain pin marks a spot rather than a nation, which is what you need for cities. Three pins in France say Paris, Lyon and Biarritz; one French flag says only France.

Planes mark routes. A line of them across an ocean reads as a journey, and it fills the empty water that a map of visited places otherwise leaves blank.

Most people end up using two of the three.

What makes ours different?

Two things. Our flag pins arrive pressed into printed cards with the country named under every flag, organised by section – not loose in a box where you have to recognise Kiribati by sight. And the plain markers are wood: round, red and square heads in the same material as the map they go into, rather than plastic or metal.

Our maps are not pre-drilled, so any pin goes exactly where you choose – a city, a coastline, a place with no hole waiting for it.

Which marker for which finish?

Our maps run from near-white birch to almost black, and the markers read differently against each.

Red carries against every finish. White planes are strongest on the Dark and Graphite maps and subtlest on the pale ones. Natural and gold-toned pins are the quiet option, staying closest to the map's own palette. Printed flags read against everything, since they carry their own colour.