CHESTERFIELD, England, April 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

As the latest scandal involving banks and their seeming inability to protect people's money has caused people to become justifiably wary of where they invest their money, demand for gold has increased. Although as people are progressively losing faith in banks and debased paper currencies, it's not just gold that is increasing in value and demand.  The demand for antiques and antique art also seems to be on the rise in the wake of the disastrous Cypriot banking crisis, with companies like Albion Prints, specialists in original antique prints from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, likely to be in higher demand.

One strand of the antiques market that has particularly enjoyed growth recently is a genre known as 'Mantiques.' The concept of mantiques basically covers a wide spectrum of items considered to be of a masculine persuasion, such as vintage cricket kits, fossils, antique globes or just about anything that bears some significance to the British Empire or brave British explorers and boasts a long and tumultuous history.

Talking about the growing mantique trend, Ben Pentreath, architectural designer, shopkeeper and collector of vintage cartography, told the Telegraph:

"It is a trend with a long history. There have always been cabinets of curiosities and natural history collections. Men have never stopped collecting. We're just seeing the modern version."

The contemporary fashion to decorate a home with mantique collections is celebrative of some of Britain's most powerful men of a bygone era. As Ben Pentreath states:

"It's all about travel and adventure. British men have a lot in our powerful past history to celebrate, so why not decorate out homes with casts like those from the Grand Tour, taxidermy, vintage racing car parts?"

Theatrical, eccentric and decorative items are at the heart of this 'toys for boys' inspired interior, such as elaborate ancient maps, aluminium binoculars from the Second World War, and propellers from biplanes of the 1920s, gracing the homes of mantique enthusiasts across the country.

Antique prints naturally fall into the genre of mantiques, with Albion Prints' original antique prints that date back to the 16^th and 17^th centuries, when the famed Renaissance and Baroque artistry changed the world of art and architecture forever, epitomising this progressively popular strand of contemporary art collections.

Albion Prints are global specialists in original antique prints from the 16^th century through to the Art Deco period. Despite their uniqueness, Albion Antique Prints are realistically priced and are never replicated prints, meaning that mantique enthusiasts can significantly enhance their collection through Albion Prints.

SOURCE Albion Prints