Lot Essay
George Adams Snr (1704-1772) was an important London instrument-maker, appointed Mathematical Instrument Maker to His Majesty's Office in 1748, and Mathematical Instrument Maker in Ordinary to His Majesty in 1760. In this capacity he provided James Cook with the instruments to observe the transit of Venus from the southern Pacific Ocean in 1769. In 1760 he bagan issuing globes, with a pocket globe taken from the Senex plates he had acquired on the latter's death in 1755. In 1766 Adams published A treatise describing the construction and explaining the use of New Terrestrial and Celestial globes. In this treatise he advertises pairs of globes of 12- and 18-inch diameter, the latter serving as the forerunner to the pair offered here. On his death in 1772, the company was taken over and run by his sons George Adams Jnr (1750-1795) and Dudley Adams (1762-1830).
This fine pair of globes is very similar to the pair offered at Christie's South Kensington on 18 November 1993 (Lot 6), although with no readily discernible watermarks as there. As with this former pair, the hour dial and equator wire are lacking, not missing. Adams' mounting innovations came in for a certain amount of disapprobation from globe-making rival Benjamin Martin, who described Adams as "a Person most miserably unskilled in the Art and Mystery of Globe Making", and from mathematics teacher Thomas Keith who felt that such additions, and the publication of the treatise to explain the use thereof, were not only transparent commercial ploys, but also encumberances hindering the understanding and appreciation of the globes themselves.
The terrestrial globe is nevertheless finely detailed, with a wealth of information, and is a fascinating view of the world on the brink of the new geographical discoveries of Captain Cook. The date of 1770 to New South Wales would suggest a date of manufacture around 1771, following Cook's momentous return from his first 1768-1771 expedition, but prior to further significant discoveries which were swiftly added to the Adams globes' cartography along with the tracks of Cook's routes.
The celestial globe incorporates the astronomical discoveries of John Flamsteed (1646-1719), published posthumously in 1725. It also depicts the more recent observations of Nicholas Louis de la Caille (1713-1762), whose work on the skies of the Southern Hemisphere ushered in a new era of celestial cartography. It was La Caille who introduced the use of scientific instruments to depict the new constellations he had mapped from the Cape of Good Hope; a pleasing feature of Adams' celestial globes is that these constellations, such as the Microscope and the Air-Pump, were drawn after Adams' own instruments. Another interesting feature is the inclusion of the lunar mansions, unusual on western globes, which were of use to navigators in charting the path of the moon across the heavens, and of interest for the then recently introduced 'lunar-distance' method of determining longitude at sea.
This fine pair of globes is very similar to the pair offered at Christie's South Kensington on 18 November 1993 (Lot 6), although with no readily discernible watermarks as there. As with this former pair, the hour dial and equator wire are lacking, not missing. Adams' mounting innovations came in for a certain amount of disapprobation from globe-making rival Benjamin Martin, who described Adams as "a Person most miserably unskilled in the Art and Mystery of Globe Making", and from mathematics teacher Thomas Keith who felt that such additions, and the publication of the treatise to explain the use thereof, were not only transparent commercial ploys, but also encumberances hindering the understanding and appreciation of the globes themselves.
The terrestrial globe is nevertheless finely detailed, with a wealth of information, and is a fascinating view of the world on the brink of the new geographical discoveries of Captain Cook. The date of 1770 to New South Wales would suggest a date of manufacture around 1771, following Cook's momentous return from his first 1768-1771 expedition, but prior to further significant discoveries which were swiftly added to the Adams globes' cartography along with the tracks of Cook's routes.
The celestial globe incorporates the astronomical discoveries of John Flamsteed (1646-1719), published posthumously in 1725. It also depicts the more recent observations of Nicholas Louis de la Caille (1713-1762), whose work on the skies of the Southern Hemisphere ushered in a new era of celestial cartography. It was La Caille who introduced the use of scientific instruments to depict the new constellations he had mapped from the Cape of Good Hope; a pleasing feature of Adams' celestial globes is that these constellations, such as the Microscope and the Air-Pump, were drawn after Adams' own instruments. Another interesting feature is the inclusion of the lunar mansions, unusual on western globes, which were of use to navigators in charting the path of the moon across the heavens, and of interest for the then recently introduced 'lunar-distance' method of determining longitude at sea.