Description
The offered globe — by C. Smith & Son — can be dated to between 1845 and 1848 because Charles Smith’s son joined his firm in 1845 and Mexico is shown with its pre-1848 borders prior to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico encompasses regions labeled New California and New Mexico south of a border labeled “Boundary Settled 1819” that extends east-west north of Lake Timpanogos (in present-day Oregon) and Salt Lake and continues along the Arkansas River and Red River to the Gulf Coast. In the United States, state boundaries are not delineated though their names appear. West of the Mississippi is labeled Northwest Terri’ry, Missouri Territory, Louisiana, Albion, and New Georgia (which straddles the border between present-day British Columbia and Washington State). Numerous Native American and First Nations tribal areas are labeled: “Shoshones or Snake Indians,” “Black Food Ind.,” Chippewa, etc. Large areas of the interior of Africa are unexplored and labeled “Unknown Parts.” Antarctica is largely unmapped except for a small part of the coastline of Enderby’s Land.
The Smith family firm of London globe makers was founded in 1799 by Charles Smith, who was “engraver to the Prince of Wales.” Smith began as a map publisher and seller, and may have added globes to their production to compete with the Cary firm. Charles began by producing miniature and pocket globes. After his son joined him in 1845, the company added a variety of floor and table models of globes, which they produced through most of the 19th century, competing with the Malby firm, also in London. According to the cartouche of many Smith globes, they were made by J. Smith, and sold by C. Smith, 172 Strand, where the firm was located from 1827 to 1852. Smith & Son is known to have provided the gores from their “New English Globe” for 12-inch globes to Josiah Loring and successor Gilman Joslin, American globe makers in Boston, from about the 1830s to the 1850s. In 1870, Smith & Son, as it was then known, moved to 63 Charing Cross. Eventually the prominent globe makers George Philip & Son took over the firm and continued issuing Smith globes in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
Circular cartouche topped with a design of the British lion and unicorn and the royal seal: SMITH’S/ TERRESTRIAL GLOBE/ Containing the/ THE LATEST DISCOVERIES/ AND/ Geographical Improvements/ also [t]he TRACKS of/ most celebrated Circumnavigators./ LONDON/ C. SMITH, & SON, 172, STRAND.
Condition: Generally very good, recently professionally restored and revarnished, now with the usual expected light toning, scattered surface wear, discoloration patches, fading, and restored abrasions and losses. Few patches of losses, generally confined to ocean areas and not affecting geographical entities – one in the mid Pacific Ocean, the others in the far southern oceans near the south pole — professionally restored and inpainted. Horizon band replaced in facsimile. Stand generally very good with minor restorations.
References:
Dekker, Elly, et al. Globes at Greenwich: A Catalogue of the Globes and Armillary Spheres in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. London: Oxford University Press and the National Maritime Museum, 1999. p. 496.
Lamb, Tom and Collins, Jeremy. The World in Your Hands: An Exhibition of Globes and Planetaria. London: Christie’s, 1994. p. 97.
