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Very rare pair of terrestrial and celestial globes by Felix Delamarche dated 1834

$33,162.41
£24,769.30
€28,000
CA$45,500.12
A$50,838.81
CHF 26,594.33
MX$623,446.72
NOK 339,825.09
SEK 322,244.20
DKK 213,158.60
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About the Item

Very rare pair of terrestrial and celestial globes made by Felix Delamarche in 1834. The cartouche of the globe reads Globe Terrestre Dressé par Felix Delamarche 1834. Plaster and paper papier mache balls, turned and ebonized wooden basket bases complete with the meridian and equator circle and papier mache hour circle. Good condition, excellent readability, conservative restorations. Height 40 cm - 15.8 inches, base diameter 27 cm - 10.6 inches, sphere diameter 18 cm - 6.9 inches. The globe is written in French and has cream-colored oceans and continents. Coastal lines are outlined with dashes and highlighted in brown. Mountain ranges are pictorially represented. The equator and ecliptic are highlighted in red. The oceans are marked with dotted lines called "Division Océanique." Alaska is called Amerique Russe - Russian America, while Australia is called Nouvelle Hollande - New Holland, and Tasmania is depicted as an island and referred to as I. de Diemen - Diemen Island. Antarctica is not mapped but only indicated as Ocean Glacial Antarctique which reflects the geographical knowledge of the time. The celestial globe consists of 12 spindles of paper printed from copper plate engraving depicting le constellations of the globe and symbolize figures of animals, mythological characters and scientific instruments on a cream-colored background. Founder of this important astronomical instrument maker was geographer Charles - François Delamarche (1740 - 1817). The firm was initially based at rue de Foin St Jacques in the Latin Quarter of Paris, where it remained until 1805, moving to 13 rue de Jardinet. Upon the death of Charles - François in 1817 the reins of the enterprise were taken over by his son Felix, who continued a prolific production, partly through cooperation with engraver Charles Dien. Around 1835 the firm was moved to 7 rue du Battoir, and then to 25 rue Serpente. In addition to terrestrial and celestial spheres, the Delamarche also distinguished themselves by producing other astronomical instruments, such as armillary spheres, named after the circles (Latin for "armillae") that represented the various planets in the solar system. The earliest known globe is the one attributed by Strabo, a historian and geographer, to the Greek Cratetes of Mallo (c.a. 150 B.C.). The first globes in the early 16th century were built under the impetus of the great geographical explorations. In the 18th century, the official geographer of Louis XV King of France, Didier Robert de Vaugondy, thanks to the practice he had gained in globe making, expanded the "Globe" article of the Encyclopédie by detailing the distinction between a celestial globe (representing the concave surface of the sky with its constellations) and a terrestrial globe (representing instead the surface of the Earth with its seas, islands, rivers, cities, etc.) and the techniques for making them: two papier-mâché hemispheres covered with a thin layer of plaster to which paper spindles previously printed by copperplate engraving and colored were glued. It will be with the nineteenth century of great commerce and the introduction of compulsory schooling that spindles printed from engraved plates will no longer suffice, and the only real resource will be lithography through which it is possible to print and update maps in a timely manner, which as more and more geographical discoveries are made in different countries become obsolete more and more rapidly. The Paris meridian was defined on June 21, 1667 by mathematicians of the Académie, but the measurement of the meridian was not completed until 1718 by Giovanni Domenico Cassini and his son Jacques Cassini. In 1740, César-François Cassini rectified the track and then the meridian was measured again from 1792 to 1798 by Jean-Baptiste Joseph Delambre and Pierre Méchain as the basis for establishing the exact length of the meter in 1799. The Paris meridian was abandoned in favor of the Greenwich meridian during the 1884 Washington International Conference. Some of the reasons were that there was almost no inhabited land at the antipodes of Greenwich, the British promise to adopt the metric system in exchange for the French relinquishing the Paris meridian, and the fact that at the time most nautical cartography was of English origin and therefore adopting a meridian other than Greenwich would force the replacement of more nautical charts. In France, the Greenwich meridian was not officially adopted until 1911. The first globes in the early 16th century were built under the impetus of the great geographical explorations and immediately began to be used for educational purposes at princely courts, monasteries and colleges. In the 18th century, the official geographer of King Louis XV of France, Didier Robert de Vaugondy, thanks to the practice he had gained in globe making, expanded the "Globe" article of the Encyclopédie by explaining in great detail the difference between a celestial globe (representing the concave surface of the sky with its constellations) and a terrestrial globe (representing instead the surface of the Earth with its seas, islands, rivers, cities, etc.) and the techniques for making them: two papier-mâché hemispheres pressed and molded on or inside a hemispherical mold, allowed to dry and reinforced inside with a wooden board, then glued together and covered with a thin layer of plaster on which the globe spindles of areas between two meridians, usually twelve, each covering 30 degrees of longitude, made of paper that had previously been printed by engraving on a copper plate and then colored, were pasted.
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 15.8 in (40.14 cm)Diameter: 10.6 in (26.93 cm)
  • Materials and Techniques:
  • Period:
  • Date of Manufacture:
    1834
  • Condition:
    Wear consistent with age and use.
  • Seller Location:
    Milan, IT
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1020242019162

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