BY ANDERS ÃKERMAN, STOCKHOLM, AFTER 1766

细节

A PAIR OF SWEDISH CELESTIAL AND TERRESTRIAL GLOBES
By Anders Ãkerman, Stockholm, after 1766
A rare pair of 23-inch (59cm.) diameter library globes, the terrestrial globe with printed cartouche-shaped label inscribed GLOBUS TERRAQUEUS Secundam Accuratissimas descriptiones Adornatus Cura Societatis Cosmogr Upsalensis Manu Andreæ Akerman Reg:Soc:Scient:Ups:Sculptoris. 1766, made up of two sets of eighteen hand-coloured engraved gores and two polar calottes, with text in Latin, the equatorial and prime meridian graduated in degrees, the latter running through Iceland, the ecliptic graduated in days of the houses of the Zodiac with sigils, the oceans showing ocean currents and trade winds, with the tracks of Captain Fourneaux, 1773, and Captain Cook, up to 1775, further with a note near Antarctica reading Glaces vues en 1738 par M. Lozier Beuvet, no Antarctic coastline shown but with areas marked Terminus Debilior and Terminus Fortier and Regio Polaris Magnetica, the continents outlined in green and showing towns, cities, rivers, the Great Wall of China and mountains and forests in pictorial relief, North America with California shown as a peninsula, no northern coastline, Alaska with projected coastline, Australia with partially projected coastline and a note in eastern Australia NOVA WALLISIA MERID. DET. 1770, the Torres Straits between Australia and New Guinea shown, New Zealand shown with complete coastline (repairs, rubbing and discolouration); the celestial globe with no cartouche, made up of two sets of eighteen hand-coloured engraved gores and two polar calottes laid to the celestial poles, the equatorial and prime meridian graduated in degrees, the ecliptic graduated in days of the houses of the Zodiac with sigils, the constellations depicted by finely rendered mythical beasts and figures and some scientific instruments, the stars shown by gilt paint (discolouration, rubbing, extensive repairs). Both spheres with stamped brass hour dial (both pointers missing) and meridian circle, the engraved paper horizon showing graduateins in degrees of amplitude and azimuth, days of the houses of the Zodiac and days of the month with compass directions and saint's days (rubbing, discolouration and paper loss), each with large brass meridian ring and a smaller ring, set within a circular frame printed with the months of the year, the base of red-painted pine with four cabriole legs with chamfered edges headed by ormolu mounts, joined by a domed X-shaped stretcher centred by a short column supporting the meridian ring, losses and restorations to the paper
35.5 in. (90 cm.) high; 311/8 in. (79 cm.) diam. (2)

来源

A further pair of globes by Akerman, executed circa 1767, was offered from the collection of Alexander Beredt, in these rooms, 10 June, 1993, lot 58

出版

E. Dekker and P. van der Krogt, Globes From The Western World (London, 1993).

注意事项

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

拍品专文

Anders Ãkerman (c.1723-66) was an engraver with a strong interest in mathematical science, and a member of the 'Kosmografiska Sällskapet' (Cosmographical Society) of Uppsala, Sweden, founded in 1758. The Society, following the French example, was strongly supportive of those of its members who wished to pursue geographical research and publication. As such, with the Society's financial backing, Ãkerman was able to set up a workshop for producing globes, and in 1759 published his first pair, at 12-inch diameter. Further issues were of 4-inch diameter in 1762 (with concave or convex gores for the celestial) and the pair of which an example is offered here, in 1766. Due to careful design of the expensive copper plates, Ãkerman was able to offer his globes relatively cheaply on the domestic market. However, to be able to compete against the more established foreign firms and their imports, the prices had to be maintained at a low level, and despite further financial assistance, Ãkerman died in poverty in 1778. After his death, the workshop was taken over by Frederik Akrell (1748-1804) who enjoyed rather more commercial success, with the joint backing of the Swedish State, as did Akrell's son and successor, Carl Frederik (1779-1862).

Akrell's globes are of interest not merely because they represent the finest Swedish globes of their period (if not the only ones), but also because of his use of pictorial relief to denote mountains and forests, and the detail applied to the oceans. According to Dekker and van der Krogt, who illustrate a similar pair (op.cit. p.81), this was due to the influence of the geographer Torbern Olaf Bergman, one of the founders of the Cosmographical Society. Ãkerman was also one of the first modern cartographers to take note of the long forgotten Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea, which following its initial discovery in 1606 seemed to have been entirely ignored. For the celestial gores, Ãkerman used the Catalogus Brittanicus by John Flamsteed for the Northern Hemisphere, and for the Southern Hemisphere the 1756 catalogue of Abbé Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, including Lacaille's fourteen new constellations.

Although dated 1766, Dekker and van der Krogt state that Ãkerman himself did not produce an updated version of his two-foot terrestrial globe, unfortunately published just prior to Cook's voyages which of course added immeasurably to cartographers' and geographers' understanding of the terrestrial map. From the details on the globe offered, its publication clearly dates from some time after Cook's travels, and this pair are quite possibly the 1779/80 reissues by Frederik Akrell.