Miniature Terrestrial Globe. Newton & Son London, post 1833, ante 1858

Miniature Terrestrial Globe
Newton & Son
London, post 1833, ante 1858
Paper, papier-mâché, bronze and wood
It measures: sphere diameter 2.95 in (7.6 cm); diameter of the wooden base 6.02 in (15.3 cm); height 8.36 in (21.24 cm).
Weight: 2,067 lb.
State of conservation: the globe still bears its original paint, but has various small gaps, abrasions and stains on the surface.

The globe is hinged with two pins at the meridian circle, which is in turn inserted perpendicular to the horizon circle; this is supported by four semi-arches connected at the bottom by a small goblet-shaped foot, resting on a wooden bell-shaped base.
Apart from the wooden base, the entire support structure is made of bronze; on the foot there are the scale reproductions of a compass, a telescope and an open book.

The sphere is made of papier-mâché and is covered with twelve printed paper gores.
In the North Pacific Ocean the globe bears a cartouche with the inscription (about 30% of the writing is illegible, but the missing parts can be easily integrated based on the rest):
NEWTON’S
New & Improved
TERRESTRIAL
Globe
Published by Newton & Son
66 Chancery Lane
LONDON

On the globe, much of central Africa is empty and the great lakes Tanganyika and Victoria are not marked (Europeans would begin to explore the area after 1858). Canada is called "British Territory" and Alaska "Russian Territory" (it would become part of the United States in 1867). Australia already bears its modern name (until 1824 it had been called New Holland) and its coasts are completely designed; Tasmania is listed as an island (Matthew Flinders circumnavigated it in 1798). The routes of Cook's various voyages are plotted; both the route followed by Biscoe in 1831 and the "Land of Enderby" which he discovered on the coast of Antarctica, south of Africa, are marked.


Bibliography
P. Van der Krogt, Old Globes in the Netherlands, H&S, Utrecht 1984, p. 205;
P. Van der Krogt, E. Dekker, Globes from the Western World, London 1993, pp. 115-118;
E. Dekker, Globes at Greenwich, Oxford 1999, pp. 422-428, cfr. mostly il n. GLB0015).