A vintage Bermuda map depicting how the island looked more than 300 years ago will go under the hammer next week at an international auction in the United States.

The hand-coloured and copper-engraved map has belonged to frequent Bermuda visitor Jan Trifero and her husband Jack for the past two decades since they were given it by a friend.

They hope that news of the auction will spark interest back in Bermuda and that the map could end up making its way home to its rightful place.

“I had a strong working link with the island and specifically hotels and the department of tourism in the 1980s and the 90s,” Ms Trifero said. “I would visit Bermuda three or four times a year.

“In 1996 a friend of ours gave the map to me because he knew how much I loved the country and for the last 20 years it has proudly hung on the wall of our library in our Connecticut home.

“Now we are moving home and thought it would be good to pass on this lovely map for someone to love for the next 20 years.”

The map was included in Montanus’ De Unbekante Neue Welt of 1673, and is based on Blaeu’s chart of 1635. Blaeu’s map is one of the most influential early maps of the island based on the famous 1618 survey by John Norwood of the Bermuda Company.

It shows the division of the island into its original “tribes” and lists various landowners in a table below the map. The Roanoke colony is also depicted on the map and mentioned in the title.

The old map will be put on auction today at Bonhams auction house in New York and is expected to fetch between $1,200 and $1,800.

“We hope it ends up coming back to Bermuda,” said Mrs Trifero. “It would make a great exhibit in a museum or somewhere like that.”

To find out more about the auction go to: www.bonhams.com/auctions/23413/