Benjamin Martin (1704/05-1782) (as successor to John Senex)
12-Inch Celestial Table Globe
Fleet Street, London: c. 1756-1770s
Oak turned stand
17 inches high; 16 inches diameter overall
Price On Request
18th Century British Celestial Table Globe
Benjamin Martin, Successor to John Senex
Benjamin Martin, Successor to John Senex
 |
 |
 |
 |
The celestial globe is surmounted by a brass hour circle, within a calibrated full brass meridian. It is in a turned oak stand in the Dutch Baroque taste, the horizon band with engraved paper calendar and zodiac, and having four circular tapering legs joined by a round turned platter on a rectangular x-form stretcher, ending in bun feet.
The globe is comprised of two sets of twelve hand-colored engraved gores laid to the ecliptic poles, with the axis through the celestial poles. The constellations are elegantly depicted in the Renaissance/Baroque as mythical figures and beasts and as scientific instruments. Stars are shown to six orders of magnitude. The background is cream-colored, the constellations are in tones of pink, grey, and olive.
Benjamin Martin, the manufacturer of this celestial globe, was a prominent globe and scientific instrument maker, lecturer, and author. In 1757, he acquired the globe trade of the renowned globe maker James Ferguson, who 2 years earlier, in 1755, had acquired copper plates for printing globe gores from the estate of John Senex, the father of British globe making in the Age of Enlightenment. In the cartouche of the offered celestial globe, Martin credits Senex, with no mention of Ferguson.
There are several similar globes to this celestial globe, described in the standard reference works on antique globes (see References below). The National Maritime Museum (U.K.) has a pair of Martin/Senex globes on similar stands, one dated as after 1757 and the other c. 1770. The World in Your Hands exhibit at Christie’s in 1994 (private collection of Rudolf Schmidt of Austria) included a Martin/Senex pair, dated as c. 1756. Modelle der Welt, a comprehensive study of globes in Austrian collections, shows a pair of Ferguson/Senex globes consisting of a terrestrial and celestial globe, of the same size and stand as the one shown here and dated c. 1756; apparently Martin also continued using Ferguson’s stand design as well as the Senex gores. Read more about Ferguson and Senex in our Guide to Globe Makers.
Cartouche: A New Celestial Globe Wheron the STARS are carefully laid down from the Correct observations of Mr. Hevelius Dr. Halley & c., By Jno SENEX F.R.S., Now made & sold with very considerable improvements, By B. Martin in Fleet St.
Condition: Generally good with the usual expected light scattered surface wear, staining, soiling, fading, toning, and abrasions, fissure cracks, all restored. Overall a nice rich tone, good contrast, the constellations very graphic and handsome. Original stand very good, with the usual overall wear and minor restorations.
References:
Allmayer-Beck, Peter E., ed. Modelle der Welt: Erd-und Himmelsgloben -- Kulturerbe aus oesterreichischen Sammlungen. [Models Of The World: Terrestrial And Celestial Globes -- Cultural Inheritance from Austrian Collections.] Vienna: Bibliophile Edition/Christian Brandstaetter Verlagsgesellschaft, 1997. p. 160.
Dekker, Elly. Globes at Greenwich: A Catalogue of the Globes and Armillary Spheres in the National Maritime Museum. Oxford University Press, New York: 1999. GLB0080, pp. 409-411.
Lamb, Tom and Collins, Jeremy. The World in Your Hands: An Exhibition of Globes and Planetaria. London: Christie's, 1994. Item 4.57. p. 61.