Accession No
0076
Brief Description
3-inch pocket terrestrial globe in case with celestial sphere, by Darton and Company, English, 1811
Origin
England; London; 55 Gracechurch Street
Maker
Darton and Company
Class
cartography; astronomy
Earliest Date
1811
Latest Date
1811
Inscription Date
1811
Material
hide (leather); paper (paper, papier mâché); fishskin; metal (iron?)
Dimensions
d 81 mm
Special Collection
Robert Whipple collection
Provenance
Purchased by Robert Stewart Whipple from T.H. Court in 11/1922. A note in the accession register indicates that it formerly belonged to the Crisp Collection.
Inscription
‘DARTON & CO
55
Gracechurch Street
LONDON
1811’ (cartouche on terrestrial globe)
Description Notes
3-inch pocket terrestrial globe in case with celestial sphere, by Darton and Co, London, 1811.
Globe has plaster sphere with printed paper gores, case is papier mache lined with paper celestial gores and outside covered with black fish skin.
Terrestial globe: 12(?) engraved paper gores. Varnished. Iron(?) axis fits into slots in case. Marks routes of Captain Cook and Anson.
Celestial Globe: 12 engraved paper gores. Stars to the 4th order of magnitude.
Complete.
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.
Darton & Co. specialized in the production of children’s literature, suggesting that this globe was intended for the education market. Some educational texts from the period suggested that children suspend a pocket globe near a candle, representing the Sun, to demonstrate the passing of day into night. The inside lining of this globe’s case also depicts a map of the celestial sphere, showing how the night sky is charted.
14/01/2014
Created by: Allison Ksiazkiewicz on 14/01/2014
FM:39715
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