Beschreibung:

TABLE GLOBE -- VALK, Gerard (1652-1726) Cosmotheore, Caelesti nostro Globo. Par, et plane Novus, Hic Terrestris ut existeret; Certo scias; Errore Veterum Sublato, Non tantum Utriusque Orbis Longitudines ac Latitudines, Per reiteratas Neotericorum Observationes, Hicce ece restitutas, Set et nullum typis Emendatiorem prodiise, Hoc igitur Novissimo tam diu fruere, Donec sub Majori forma, Meo aere Alios excudam Gerardus Valk Calcographus Amstelaedami, A°1707 Cum privilegio . & Uranographia Caelum omne hic Complectens Illa pro ut aucta et ad annum 1700 Competum MAGNO ab HEVELIO correcta est; ita, ejus ex Prototypis, sua noviter haec Ectypa veris Astronomiae cultoribus exhibet et consecrat GERARDUS VALK Amstelaedmenis. Cum Privilegio. The earliest state of Valk's 15-inch globes Each globe comprised of two sets of eighteen hand-coloured engraved half-gores and two polar calottes, those of the celestial laid to the ecliptic poles with the stars gilt and given to six orders of magnitude; the terrestrial with Western coast of Australia, California as a island, no North-western coast of Canada, the Southern coast of a supposed mid-Pacific continent given TERRA INCOGNITA sive TERRAR SONIS . Both supported in graduated brass meridian rings (the the celestial stamped 13 and terrestrial stamped 14) , with hand-coloured engraved calendrical horizon rings, on four turned oak legs with bun feet, united with cross-stretchers supporting turned base plate. 580mm high, 565mm wide. Provenance : Schloss Breitenburg. Gerard Valk, or Gerrit Leendertsz Valck (1652-1726), together with his son Leonard, were the only significant publishers of globes in the Netherlands in the eighteenth century, enjoying an almost total monopoly. Initially an engraver and art dealer, and having worked for map-sellers Christopher Browne and David Loggan in London between 1672 and 1679, Valk established the firm in Amsterdam in 1687 in co-operation with his brother-in-law Petrus Schenk (c.1661-1711). Initially they published maps and atlases, but in 1700 the company moved the shop to the building previously occupied by map and globe-maker Jodocus Hondius In 1701, he applied for a charter for making globes and the 'Planetolabium', designed by Lotharius Zumbach de Coesfelt (1661-1727), an astronomy lecturer at Leiden University. This pair of globes is the earliest state identified by van der Krogt (Val III states 1a and 1), who identifies only 6 pairs in institutions.