Click main image below to view enlargements and captions.

Globe, Miniature, 3.5 Inch Terrestrial in Cylindrical Box, Antique, Bauer, Germany, Mid 19th C.

$8,250

Carl Johann Sigmund Bauer (1780-1857)
3.5-Inch Terrestrial Globe in Cylindrical Box
Bauer Family, Nuremberg: Mid 19th Century
Pocket globe in cylindrical box
3.5 inches diameter, globe
4 inches high, 4 inches diameter, cylindrical box
$8,250

A charming miniature terrestrial globe in its original box with illustrated lid. This globe was most likely produced to introduce children to the subject of geography — its simple geographical features were intended to teach relative cartography on a sphere. Place names on the globe are in English, suggesting it was made for export to England and America. It is one among a number of versions of such globes by German globe makers — generally attributed to the Bauer family — produced for the English and Continental markets. The illustration on the box lid incorporates the maker’s mark MCB with the letters “C” and “B” in between the serifs of the letter M (probably meaning Marke Carl Bauer, that is, Carl Bauer Brand). The globe itself has no maker’s initials or markers, as is often the practice with these similar globes. Globes were issued by Carl Bauer as early as the 1820s, and then by his family as successors. This particular globe has the manuscript date 1859 on the underside of the box. This suggests that the globe was manufactured in the mid 19th century, which is otherwise consistent with other globes by the Bauer family and examples with similar cartography and cases.

Product description continues below.

Description

The terrestrial globe has metal axis pins at the North and South Poles, and rests loosely, as issued, in the top edge of its original cylindrical box. The top edge has a small metal fitting at either side in which the globe axis pins are inserted; this allows the globe to be rotated 360 degrees by hand to view all the different sides east to west. The cylindrical box is made of cardboard and covered on the sides with pink paper. The lid has a circular applied paper illustration of a distinguished naval officer with a blue military coat and white sash. Behind him is a seascape with large clipper ships. The officer’s military cap rests on a table on the right and he rests his arm on a large terrestrial floor globe on the left. The globe pictured in the illustration has globe maker Carl Bauer’s MCB logo superimposed on the horizon band. The illustration is set within a classical border of repeating foliate scrolls interrupted at the bottom with a vignette of a tropical beach. These are further enclosed within an outer round pink border edged in green.

The globe, with place names in English, is comprised of 12 engraved hand-colored gores on a hollow cardboard core. Every other longitude line corresponds to the gores; latitude lines are also included. The Equator (highlighted in red), Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circles, the Ecliptic, and the “First Meridian Through London” are labeled. The very simple cartography labels continents and oceans, and also includes some major nations, cities and rivers. Some national boundaries are indicated by dotted lines. Antarctica was still largely unexplored, so only some small sections of known coastline are included. The Arctic region is more detailed but the northernmost coastlines of North America and Greenland are undefined. Australia is called New Holland. Oceans are tan. Continents are cream-colored and hand outlined in red, yellow, green, or orange. The coastlines are shaded with printed lines to which green hand coloring has been applied.

Johann Bernard Bauer (1752-1839) and his sons Carl Johann Sigmund Bauer (1780-1857) and Peter Bauer (1783-1847) were scientific instrument makers, globe makers and engravers in Nuremberg. Between them, the Bauer family produced a variety of globes, including miniatures for the educational market. Carl Bauer is well known for packaging a miniature globe in a box with inserted folding engravings of the peoples of the world as a set called “The Earth and its Inhabitants.” Versions for the German- and English-speaking markets survive, with variations in the number and style of engravings as well as in the appearance of the box lids. These sets are either unsigned or bear the initials C.B. on the globe and/or on the box.

Read more about the Bauer Family and MPS in our Guide to Globe Makers.

The box accompanying this globe is inscribed in manuscript ink on the underside, “Thomas B. Sharadin/ May 20, 1859, Globe No. 1,” probably by the owner of the globe at that time. The naval officer’s sash on the top of the box is inscribed “Sharadin” in the same hand. By applying the dates to genealogical records it is conceivable that it refers to a Thomas B. Sharadin (1848-1863) living in Kutztown, Berks County, Pennsylvania, who would have been age 11 in 1859, the date written on the underside of the box.

Condition: Globe in box with illustration all original as issued. Globe generally very good with the usual overall light toning, wear, and handling. Toning on the globe varies — slightly irregular from light to slight darker. Box in good condition with the usual light toning, wear, soiling; minor abrasions and chipping of applied paper with some greater wear at box edges and corners. Ink manuscript notations on underside of box and in naval officer’s sash dated 1859, apparently original.

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. 171.

Dahl, Edward H. and Gauvin, Jean-François. Sphaerae Mundi: Early Globes at the Stewart Museum. Canada: Septentrion and McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2000. pp. 98-99.

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. pp. 273-75.

Dekker, Elly and van der Krogt, Peter. Globes from the Western World. London: Zwemmer, 1993. p. 98.

Lamb, Tom and Collins, Jeremy. The World in Your Hands: An Exhibition of Globes and Planetaria. London: Christie’s, 1994. p. 92.

Sumira, Sylvia. Globes: 400 Years of Exploration, Navigation and Power. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014. 47, pp. 186-187.

“Thomas B. Sharadin.” Find A Grave. 2019. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/26083782/thomas-b-sharadin (24 December 2019).

Additional information

Maker Location

,

Maker

Globe Type

Terrestrial