Accession No
2914
Brief Description
3-inch pocket celestial globe, by Newton, London, c. 1840
Origin
London; England
Maker
Newton
Class
astronomy
Earliest Date
1840
Latest Date
1840
Inscription Date
Material
wood; plaster; paper
Dimensions
box height 92mm; base diameter 95mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Purchased from Phillips, London, England; lot 25, 20/10/1982.
Inscription
‘NEWTON’S
Improved Pocket
Celestial
GLOBE’ (cartouche)
Description Notes
3-inch pocket celestial globe, by Newton, London, c. 1840.
Wooden core; plaster skin; 12 paper gores; hand-coloured; polar axis; wooden, two-part case.
References
Katie Taylor; 'Pocket-sized globes'; Explore Whipple Collections online article; Whipple Museum of the History of Science; University of Cambridge; 2009: https://www.whipplemuseum.cam.ac.uk/explore-whipple-collections/globes/pocket-sized-globes
Events
Description
Joseph Moxon (1627–1691), who wrote The English Globe in 1679, introduced pocket globes to England in the mid seventeenth century. Although their popularity peaked in the eighteenth century, when they were mainly purchased as ornate toys for the amusement of the upper classes, makers continued to produce them into the nineteenth century. Celestial globes showed the location of fixed stars in relation to each other and to the Earth. The introduction of printing made them much more widely available, so that they were no longer just the private work of detached astronomers. They were often sold in sets with terrestrial globes.
30/06/2014
Created by: Allison Ksiazkiewicz on 30/06/2014
FM:43477
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