Lot 103
103
An English 3¾-inch terrestrial pocket globe
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more
An English 3¾-inch terrestrial pocket globe

CHARLES SMITH, 1810

Details
An English 3¾-inch terrestrial pocket globe
Charles Smith, 1810
signed SMITH'S TERRESTRIAL GLOBE; exhibiting the whole of the DISCOVERIES, of the different CIRCUMNAVIGATORS to 1810 Pubd by C. Smith Strand Oct 1810., made up of twelve hand-coloured engraved gores and two axis pins, the graduated equatorial coloured green, alternately shaded and numbered by 10°, the graduated ecliptic coloured yellow, alternately shaded and numbered by 10° and the symbols of the Zodiac, the tropics and arctics shown and labelled, unmarked meridian through London, marking the routes of Cook's third voyage, Gore, La Pérouse and Vancouver, Australia named New Holland and New Sth Wales with yellow and pink coastlines, Tasmania as an island named Van Diemens Land, New Zealand shown but no Antarctic land, the Great Wall marked, California as a peninsula, the North Canadian Coast not shown but sea recorded by Mackenzie and Hearne shown (abrasions to varnish, slight loss by axis pins, small chip with loss of paper to ecliptic). In original fishskin-covered case with three brass clasps (one snapped, another defective), interior laid with plain orange gores (heavily marked with pencil) bearing old manuscript price of 18/- (case cracked with small loss to plaster interior revealing printed paper beneath).
4¼in. (11cm.) diameter in case
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Smith is better known as a map publisher in London, and his work in globe making undoubtably stems from the competitive spirit between his great rival John Cary, who dominated the field in early nineteenth-century London. This globe has an interesting depiction of the 'lost island' of Isle Grande off the coast of Argentina. The island was 'discovered' by Antonio de la Roche in 1675, but never sighted again. La Pérouse searched for it in 1785 in vain, but the position of the island still lingered on Admiralty charts until the early 19th century. Smith marks the island on his globe as 'very doubtfull'.

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