Beschreibung:

LIBRARY GLOBE – COPLEY, Charles (fl.1843-69). A 16-inch celestial globe made from two sets of twelve hand-colored engraved half gores laid to the celestial poles and two polar calottes, the constellations depicted by mythical beasts and figures and scientific instruments in yellow on a pale green ground, the stars to nine orders of magnitude with nebulae, the ecliptic given with twilight zone. Supported in graduated brass meridian ring, sitting in horizon ring with facsimile calendar supported on an extremely fine carved dark mahogany stand with three scroll and acanthus-headed quadrant supports to a stylized pineapple and carved column, outswept acanthus-carved legs with scroll feet united by cross-stretchers. An extremely rare antebellum library globe on elaborate stand. Charles Copley was an engraver working from Brooklyn, New York, who in 1852 received a gold medal for his 16-inch diameter globes at the Fair of the American Institute in New York – “we are of opinion these globes equal any that can be procured. Our committee awarded to Mr. Copley the gold medal of the Institute.” Despite the high quality of his work, however, he did not experience commercial success during his working lifetime. This would come only later, as towards the end of the nineteenth century his globes were successfully revised and reissued by the firms of Moore & Nims and Gilman Joslin. The finely carved stand of the present globe is certainly the equal of any of the finest Victorian globe stands produced across the Atlantic. As for its rarity, we cannot find any earlier floor standing American globe other than a terrestrial 16-inch globe by Copley sold Christie’s New York, East, 31 July 2001 lot 75 ($24,675). 406mm diameter (light to moderate toning, a few minor surface abrasions).