Description
An innovative and unusual physical geography globe with a surface in raised relief showing relative mountain heights of the topography. Cartography is simple, and labeled in French. Oceans are green, countries are colored cream and shades of tan, some with red outlining. Alaska is referred to as “Amerique Russe” [Russian America], indicating a date before 1869. The North Pacific is labeled Grand Ocean Boreal and above the Equator is labeled Grand Ocean Equinoxial, the South Pacific is Grand Ocean Austral, and the Caribbean is called Mer des Antilles. Antarctica is labeled Ocean Glacial Antarctique, and is surrounded by small cream-colored marks, presumably to represent icebergs.
Little information about Thury & Belnet is available, however all globes issued under that name appear to be relief globes, and the cartouche of this globe refers to them as “Geographers, Authors, Publishers” in Dijon, France. France’s National Library (BnF) has an 1855 edition of the relief globe in its collection with a full meridian and horizon band with engraved paper calendar and zodiac. They list Thury as the cartographer, and the publisher as Guillemin & Delmont, Paris. Cartouches on later editions of the globes note that it was awarded a 2nd class medal at the Paris Exposition of 1855 and a 1st class medal at the Dijon Exposition of 1858. Thury & Belnet relief globes are recorded as having been exhibited at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in London in 1860, included in an 1867 inventory of the collection of the South Kensington Museum (renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1899), and were recommended in an article on teaching schoolchildren history and geography in the periodical New York Teacher in 1861, where the globe is referred to as having been “just brought out in Paris and London.”
Cartouche: MEDAILLE DE 2e CLASSE, EXPOSITION DE PARIS, 1855,/ Med’le. de 1me. Classe Exp. de Dijon 1858. — Med’le. d’Or Acad’mie de Dijon/ BREVET D’INVENTION S.C.D.C./ GLOBE EN RELIEF/ PAR/ THURY & BELNET/ GEOGRAPHES, AUTEURS, PUBLISHERS./ DIJON. Lith. Richard Dijon.
[2nd Class Medal, Paris Exposition 1855/ 1st Class Medal Dijon Exposition 1858. — Gold Medal Academy of Dijon/ Certificate of Invention S.C.D.C./ Relief Globe/ by/ Thury & Belnet/ Geographers, Authors, Editors/ Dijon. Lithography Richard Dijon]
Condition: Generally very good with the usual overall overall toning and wear with professional restorations to scattered minor abrasions overall and to minor separations at the equator. Stand very good with overall light aging and wear.
References:
Catalogue of the Educational Division of the South Kensington Museum. 8th ed. London: 1867. p. 334. Online at Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=yr4IAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA334&lpg=PA334 (25 March 2020).
Reuben, Levi. “Two Thoughts on the Teaching of History and Geography.” New York Teacher. Vol. 10, No. 8. May 1861. p. 373. Online at Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=nns5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA373 (25 March 2020).
“Second Meeting, Monday, November 26th, 1860.” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London. Vol. 5. p. 21. https://books.google.com/books?id=lfMRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA21 (25 March 2020).
“Sphère-reliefs par Thury instituteur.” Bibliothèque Nationale de France. 3 March 2015. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b550087327 (25 March 2020).