Description
Globe geography is simple, showing continents, countries, major cities and principal steamship routes. Latitude lines are marked in large red numbers at 15-degree increments above and below the equator. Along the equator are large red numbers between 1 and 24, corresponding to the numbers on the cards. The prime meridian runs through Paris. Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn are indicated. Coastlines are shaded with horizontal hatch marks, and major mountain ranges are also shaded. Canada is labeled Nouvelle Bretagne [New Britain]. India is called Hindoustan. The Hawaiian Islands are labeled as “Hawaï ou Sandwich” (Sandwich Islands was a name that gradually fell from use after the 1840s).
The game’s instructions explain that it is intended to teach children geography, in an enjoyable and age appropriate way, so they could learn to find countries on the globe according to the latitude. Players are dealt cards according to the amount they wager. The globe is spun and the “happy owner” of the card corresponding to the flag above the pointer must find the country on the globe, using the latitude information printed on the card. The cards each give the population and a sentence about the place. The cards include large nations such as China, Turkey and Mexico; smaller ones such as Ecuador and New Zealand; and the capital cities San Salvador (Brazil) and Lisbon (Portugal). Some of the smaller nations are those where the French had colonial ties: Tahiti, New Caledonia, as well as “Annam,” which included present day Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
Ikelmer was a French globe maker active in Paris in the 19th century, that published both French and foreign language globes. The geographer R. Barbot frequently worked with them. Ikelmer’s globes won many awards.
There were apparently a number of companies known as A.L. & Cie. in 19th-century France, including one that made porcelain dolls, but the one involved with this product was perhaps the same company that also produced decorative bookbindings for works by Jules Verne and others.
Imprimerie Deymarie & Jouet was a Paris printer of chromolithographs active in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Full publication information: Modèle Déposv A. L. & Cie, Editeurs, Paris. Paris – Imp. Deymarie & Jouet, 71 rue de Temple.
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. pp. 216-217 (illus.).
Lamb, Tom and Collins, Jeremy. The World in Your Hands: An Exhibition of Globes and Planetaria. London: Christie’s, 1994. Item 8.8, p. 102.
McCaa, Robert. “The Peopling of Mexico from Origins to Revolution.” The Population History of North America. 8 December 1997. fig. 5. http://users.pop.umn.edu/~rmccaa/mxpoprev/img005.gif (8 April 2020).
