W. & A. K. Johnston
18-Inch Floor Globe on Classical Stand

This item is sold. It has been placed here in our online archives as a service for researchers and collectors.

Johnston Empire
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Johnston Empire Johnston Empire Johnston Empire
W. & A.K. Johnston
18-Inch Terrestrial Floor Globe
Edinburgh &London: 1907
Mahogany stand
43.5 inches high, 23 inches diameter, overall
Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items.

A handsome and bold full sized home library globe, one of the most expensive models of the period, with high quality mahogany stand and brass meridian.  In 2005, New York City interior designer Eric Cohler incorporated this globe into the 760-square-foot main room of This Old Showhouse in Carlisle, Massachusetts.  To see it as it was in that setting, click here.

The 18-inch terrestrial globe with engraved brass polar hour rings in calibrated engraved brass meridian, the meridian turning on a ball-bearing mechanism; the horizon with engraved paper calendar and zodiac, raised on four quadrant supports turning on a pinion, the mahogany stand with rectangular tapering central pillar having horizontal molding, supported by a rectangular stepped plinth, ending in bun feet.  Oceans colored green, geographic entities in a variety of colors, blue and red isothermal lines, ocean currents indicated by white lines.  Railroad and submarine cable lines indicated.

This model stand was produced for globes made by W. & A.K. Johnston for import to the United States from about 1890 through the 1920s, with some minor variations in form.  Although sometimes marketed as “colonial,” the design is more related to the American and European Empire style of the 1820s and 1830s.  One such model, imported from Johnston by A.J. Nystrom & Co. was advertised in their 1925 Anniversary Catalog C-25, as the "Superb Library Globe ... The finest piece of workmanship ever produced in the [Johnston] globe line [and] as essential in a library as a dictionary or encyclopedia."

For more information on W. & A. K. Johnston, please see our Guide to Globe Makers.

Circular Cartouche Surmounted by Coat of Arms: 18 INCH/ TERRESTRIAL GLOBE,/ by/ W. & A. K. JOHNSTON,/ LIMITED/ Geographers, Engravers & Printers/ EDINBURGH/ and/ LONDON/  [key to lines]/ Copyright 1907 by W. & A.K. Johnston Ltd.