Description
On the terrestrial globe, the continents are highlighted in thick, boldly colored outlines of red, green, orange and yellow. Oceans are colored tan. The routes of Captain Cook’s second and third voyages, and the place where he was killed in Hawaii in 1779 are indicated, as is the route taken by “Clark [sic.] & Gore” (Captains Charles Clerke and John Gore) who completed the third voyage after Cook’s death. California is shown as a peninsula. The Antarctic region is shown without cartography, except for three spots labeled either “Ice” or “Isles of Ice.” The location of the antipodes of London is marked. An identical globe, in a mahogany box (no stand or meridian), is in the collection of the National Maritime Museum in Britain and pictured in Dekker, Globes at Greenwich. According to that entry, the date is after 1833.
The celestial globe shows constellations named and drawn as mythological figures and illustrations of scientific instruments, lightly shaded in gray, the stars represented by different symbols according to orders of magnitude and marked by the Bayer notation. A number of astronomical coordinates are labeled, including the ecliptic, north and south declinations, and the “Circle of Perpetual Apparition at London” at N 38° and the “Circle of Perpetual Occultation” at London at S 38°. An identical globe, in a mahogany box (no stand or meridian), also in the collection of the National Maritime Museum is also pictured in Globes at Greenwich. According to that entry, the date is circa 1860.
The pair of stands appears to have been produced by a prolific unknown craftsman in the late 19th century who custom made extremely fancy stands for small English globes, 3 to 6 inches in diameter. We have seen many of these globes and they all bear the same characteristic manuscript horizon band and calibrated meridians. All of the stands on these globes are of high quality, with intricate delicate turnings and sometimes carving, handmade and highly decorative in a variety of traditional English Georgian designs.
Newton & Son was operated from 1841 to 1883 by descendants of the British globe maker John Newton, who started making globes in the late 18th Century. For more information about the Newton family of globe makers, see our Guide to Globe Makers.
The heyday of the pocket globe was Georgian period England, from the early 18th century to about 1840, where they were mainly made as novelty items for English aristocrats interested in geography and astronomy. Read more about the history and development of pocket globes.
Terrestrial cartouche: NEWTON’s/ New & Improved/ TERRESTRIAL/ GLOBE/ Published by Newton & Son/ 66 Chancery Lane,/ LONDON.
Celestial, rectangular cartouche with inset edges: NEWTON’s/ Improved Pocket/ Celestial/ GLOBE.
Condition: Each globe and horizon generally good with the usual light wear, toning, soiling, abrasions neatly restored. Stands later, but antique, c. late 19th century.
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. pp. 55, 422-423, 426-428.
“James Cook.” Wikipedia. 4 July 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook#Third_voyage_.281776.E2.80.9379.29_and_death (7 July 2011).
