Click main image below to view enlargements and captions.

Globe, English, Smith, Terrestrial World, 6-Inch Table Globe, Pedestal Stand, Antique, London, 1870s (Reserved)

Smith & Son
6-Inch Terrestrial Table Globe
London: c. 1870s
Turned mahogany base, brass half meridian
10 inches high, 6 inch diameter base

A very handsome English small desk globe having extremely fine quality about it; would make a great gift or presentation.

The terrestrial globe is canted in a brass uncalibrated half-meridian and raised on a turned mahogany stand with central baluster standard and dish base. The oceans are green and geographical entities are cream or shaded orange­, with wide green outlining at the edges of major bodies of water. American states, regions and territories shown west of Georgia and Ohio include Mississippi Territory, Louisiana, Texas, California, and Utah. Lands inhabited by “Chipaways,” ­Pianeise, and Snake Indians, among others, are shown. Antarctica is not shown, but Enderby’s Land is indicated. The northernmost portion of Greenland is also left blank. An hour circle is printed at the North Pole. Some mountain ranges are shaded with hatch marks. A figure-eight analemma is in the Pacific Ocean and there are graduated dashed lines at the ecliptic and the equator. The Equator is labeled “Longitude from London East” in the Indian Ocean.

Product description continues below.

Description

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 the1850s. 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.

Cartouche: SMITH’S/ TERRESTRIAL/ GLOBE./ Shewing the latest/ Discoveries/ to the present time./ LONDON,/ SMITH & SON, 63 CHARING CROSS

Condition: Generally very good, recently professionally restored, including scattered minor abrasions, and revarnished; now with light remaining scattered toning and wear. Stand generally fine, richly patinated.

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.

Additional information

Maker Location

Globe Type

Terrestrial

Material

Brass, Wood, Mahogany

Maker

Stand

Half meridian, Turned wood