A PAIR OF REGENCY 21-INCH LIBRARY GLOBES
A PAIR OF REGENCY 21-INCH LIBRARY GLOBES
A PAIR OF REGENCY 21-INCH LIBRARY GLOBES
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A PAIR OF REGENCY 21-INCH LIBRARY GLOBES
9 More
A PAIR OF REGENCY 21-INCH LIBRARY GLOBES

John and William Cary, 1818

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A PAIR OF REGENCY 21-INCH LIBRARY GLOBES
John and William Cary, 1818
The terrestrial cartouche CARY'S NEW TERRESTRIAL GLOBE, EXHIBITING The Tracks and Discoveries made by CAPTAIN COOK: Also those of CAPTAIN VANCOUVER on the NORTH WEST COAST OF AMERICA And M. DE LA PEROUSE, on the COAST of TARTARY. TOGETHER With every other Improvement collected from Various Navigators to the present time. LONDON: Made & Sold by J.& W. Cary, Strand, March 1st.1815 below the cartouche WITH ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS TO 1818; the celestial cartouche CARY'S New and Improved CELESTIAL GLOBE ON WHICH Is carefully laid down THE WHOLE of the STARS AND NEBULÆ, Contained in the ASTRONOMICAL CATALOGUE of the REVD. Mr. WOLLASTON, F.R.S., Compiled from the Authorities of FLAMSTEED, DE LA CAILLE, HEVELIUS, MAYER, BRADLEY, HERSCHEL, MASKELYNE . With an extensive number from the works of Miss Herschel, The whole adapted to the year 1800, and the Limits of each Constellation determined by a boundary line. London: Made & Sold by J.& W. Cary, No. 181 Strand Mar 1 1799.
Both comprised of two sets of eighteen hand-coloured engraved split half-gores, those of the celestia laid to the ecliptic poles, the axis through the celestial poles; engraved brass hour dials and engraved meridians sitting on stands with hand-coloured engraved paper horizon rings carrying Zodiac, calendrical scales and wind directions;
The mahogany stands with three quadrants to the central support with turned finial, the three tapering reeded legs terminating in castors and united by turned stretchers to the glazed compass boxes with blued-steel needles and engraved thirty-two point wind rose with degree scales and signed J.& W. CARY STRAND LONDON.
48 x 27 ¼ x 27 ¼in. (122 x 69 x 69cm.) each

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Lot Essay

John Cary, the elder (1755-1835) was a prominent English cartographer, engraver, globe maker and publisher. With his brother William, J. & W. Cary were among the most successful of the thriving London map, globe and instrument trade of their day. This, their largest pair of globes, is finely engraved and hand-colored as issued.

The terrestrial sphere shows the routes of the eighteenth century circumnavigators and explorers of the north Pacific, James Cook and his followers; Vancouver, La Perouse, Phipps, Pickersgill, and Russian navigators including Rasmyloff. Important new information of the American northwest and Asian northeast coasts appears clearly on the scale afforded by this size globe. In advertisements for his 21 inch globes in various of his geographical works, Cary stated that he had availed himself of the voyages of Mungo Park (West Africa); "Clark & Lewis(!)" (Western U.S.); Humboldt (Latin America); Flinders (Australia); Elphinstone (maritime) and Capt. Ross (Arctic). Of further interest is the political border between the U.S. and Canada, indicating that the U.S. controlled lands well north of what the final resolution would proclaim a few decades later.

The celestial globe, with axis running through the celestial poles, was also kept current with the astronomical findings of scientists including the renowned British astronomer Caroline Herschel, who updated and corrected the "Observations of the Fixed Stars" of Flamsteed. "It contained some 3,500 stars, more than any previous globe." (Kanas, 2007).

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