• Height:
  18 1/2 Inches
• Diameter:
  12 1/2 Inches
• Period:
  18th Century
• Origin:
  Other Europe

This incredible pair of table globes was crafted by Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr of Nuremberg, Germany. Both scientifically useful tools and brilliantly decorative, these spheres represent the finest of this craft. Resting in classically-inspired oak stands, the globes are mounted in engraved brass meridian rings. Octagonal wooden horizon rings are covered with engraved and hand-colored paper showing degrees of amplitude and azimuth in four quadrants, the days of the houses of the Zodiac, and the days of the months with saints' feast days. The terrestrial globe features the portraits of famous explorers, such as Americo Vespucci, Magelhaens, Olivier van Noort, Dampier and Columbus, surrounding a second cartouche in the southern Pacific. The tracks of numerous explorers including Dampier, Tasman, Roggeveen, Behrens and Le Maire are also indicated. Most interestingly, the Great Wall of China is drawn and labeled, as are towns, cities, coastal ports, rivers, mountains and forests in pictorial relief. The celestial globe is equally elaborate, adorned with classical representations of constellations as well as astronomical observational tools, the individual days of the month and names and the houses of the Zodiac and their sigils. Wonderful globes such as this are rarely seen in pairs and even fewer can be found in such pristine condition. A cartouche on the terrestrial globe reads "GLOBUS TERRESTRIS in quo locorum insigniorum situs terraeque facies, secundum praecipuas celeberimorum nostri aevi Astronomorum et Geographorum observationes opera IOH. GABR. DOPPELMAIERI Mathem. Prof. Publ. Norib. exhibentur, concinnatus a Joh. Georg. Puschner Chalcographo Norib. A.C. 1728." Dated 1728 12 1/2" diameter x 18 1/2" high Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr (or Doppelmayer, 1671-1750), was professor of mathematics at one of the oldest German "Gymnasia", and was active as a translator of scientific works on physics and astronomy, as well as a writer and editor of atlases. Globe-making was only a small part of his efforts to encourage the diffusion of scientific knowledge. He also experimented on electrical phenomena. Indeed, it seems likely that his death in 1750 was the result of an electric shock received whilst investigating the recently invented electrical condensors called Leyden Jars.