John and Robert Cary were among the foremost London map and globe sellers during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They published their first globes in 1791 and built up a thriving business as map publishers and instruments makers which was continued by John Cary's sons, George and John Junior, well into the 19th century (London: 25 August-9 September 1994, The World In Your Hands: An Exhibition of Globes and Planetaria from the Collection of Rudolf Schmidt, exhibition catalogue, pp. 64 and 65).