J. & W. Cary
18-Inch Regency Celestial Floor Globe
London: March: 1816
43 inches high, 24 inches diameter overall
Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items.
Cary 18-Inch Celestial Floor Globe
19th Century
19th Century
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A handsome full-sized celestial floor globe by J. & W. Cary, generally regarded as the greatest British globe makers of the late Georgian period. Richly decorated with zodiac and other constellation figures, raised on a mahogany stand in the Georgian taste.
The celestial globe surmounted by brass hour disc at North Pole, in full graduated brass meridian, the horizon edged in red paint with later hand-colored paper ring showing degrees of amplitude and azimuth, compass directions, days and months of the year, names of the signs of the zodiac, and an equation of time; supported by four mahogany quadrants with joined to the horizon by pairs of quarter-round brackets; raised on a mahogany tripod stand with central turned vasiform standard, the S-form curved legs joined by compass stretcher with glazed round wooden compass case enclosing a paper compass card and magnetized metal needle.
Comprised of two sets of twelve hand-colored engraved gores laid to the ecliptic poles, the axis through the celestial poles, the equatorial graduated in degrees and hours, the colures graduated in degrees, the ecliptic graduated in days of the houses of the zodiac with twilight zone, constellations elegantly depicted by figures of mythical beasts and scientific instruments, the zodiac belt within graph-form grid, the stars shown in a chart to nine orders of magnitude, together with planetary nebulae; clusters; nebulae and clusters [combined]. Cream colored background, the constellations in tones of pink, grey, browns, and olive.
The celebrated Cary family of cartographers and globe makers produced some of the greatest late Georgian globes. The firm was started in the late 18th Century by John Cary, who often worked in partnership with his brother William Cary, a scientific instrument maker. The Cary brothers moved their business to 86 St. James's Street in about 1820, leaving the premises at 181 Strand to John Cary's sons George (c. 1788-1859) and John Jr. (1791 - 1852). They produced a variety of globes under the name G. & J. Cary from 1821 to about 1850. In 1850, George Frederick Cruchley, a map seller, took over a portion of the Cary business and produced maps and globes from 1850 to about 1876.
Oval Cartouche: CARY'S/ NEW CELESTIAL GLOBE/ on which are laid down,/ THE WHOLE OF THE STARS, NEBULAE &c,/ Contained in the Astronomical Works of the/ REVd F. WOLLASTON F.R.S./ De la Caille, Herschel, Hevelius, Mayer,/ Flamsteed, Bradley &c./ London: Made & Sold by J. & W. Cary Strand March 1816.
References:
Dekker, Elly and Peter van der Krogt, Globes from the Western World. London: Zwemmer, 1993.
Fordham, Sir Herbert George. John Cary, Engraver, Map, Chart and Print-Seller and Globe-Maker. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1925.
Lamb, Tom and Jeremy P. Collins (ed.) The World In Your Hands. London: 1994.