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A SMALL WORLD: CONSUMMATELY RARE & PROBABLY UNIQUE
This is, to the best of our
knowledge, the only known example of a pocket globe signed
Londini Sumptibus/Phillip Lea (one of the earliest
English globe-makers to produce a pocket globe).
Joseph Moxon made
his “first of its kind produced in England” pocket globe between
1670 and 1690 (Winter 2005 Map Forum). Robert Morden apprenticed
under Moxon. Then Phillip Lea apprenticed with Morden in the
Weavers Company in 1675 and was credited c1683 along with Morden
and William Berry on a 14 inch terrestrial globe (now in the
British
Museum). The National
Maritime
Museum has three table globes (2 celestial and one terrestrial)
signed by Robert Morden, William Berry and Philip Lea, “and sold
at their shops at ye Atlas in Cornhill, at ye Globe at Charing
Cross, and at ye Atlas & Hercules in Cheapside London.” The
latter address indicates Philip Lea operated his own globe-making
premises by 1685 (or 1683).
(Dekker,
et/al. Globes at Greenwich for N.M.M. data.)
“The tracks of Drake and Cavendish
are marked” on the terrestrial 14 inch globes, as they are on
several examples of the Moxon pocket globes. The Lea pocket globe
does not mark these travels. The style, nomenclature, Roman
numerals for globe sections and unique coloration as well as other
differences indicate that Lea’s pocket globe is not a Moxon
imitation. Philip Lea flourished (according to Tooley) from 1666
to 1700. As Helen Wallis remarked (The Compleat Plattmaker,
1978), in the latter 17th century “Seller, Morden,
Berry, and Lea commanded a large share of the map market.” The
latter three worked together and independently as globe makers.
Philip Lea “was Pepys’s (the famous London diarist) professional
consultant on maps and globes.” (Wallis) Pepys diary entry;
“Globe, when and where first invented, and when first here?
Consult Mr. Lee (sic)…” indicates the level of expertise Phillip
Lea achieved as a globemaker.
The late 17th
Century 2.75 inch terrestrial orb is enclosed in a hinged
spherical wooden case covered with fishskin and secured by two
brass hooks and eyelets. Twelve engraved and hand-colored paper
gores cover the surface of the hollow wood and plaster orb, except
at polar extremes where a metal pinion rests flush with the polar
calottes. The equatorial is graduated and uncolored. The
ecliptic is ungraduated and uncolored. Printed below the
equatorial are large Roman numerals I to XII designating the 12
gores beginning just west of the prime meridian, which runs
through England with degrees of latitude graduated 90º-0-90º.
Five lines of latitude are marked on either side of the equatorial
with Tropic Cancri and Tropic Capricorni designated. Polar
Circulus Arcticus and Circulus Antarcticus are colored red.
Countries and regions are heavily outline colored in red
(Scandinavia, Tartaria, Florida, Peru, Brazil, Australia, Cape of
Good Hope, etc.), yellow (Sahara, Abysinnia, Granada, Guiana,
Persia and most of North America, etc.), green (Mexico, Arabia,
Chili, Biafara, etc.) and blue (Germany, interior of South Africa,
Amazon region, etc.). Australia (Hollandia Nova) shows no
coastline from the east shore of the Gulf of
Carpenteria going right around to the middle of the Great Australia Bight. Van
Diemen (‘s land) is shown correctly as an island. In North
America California is depicted as a carrot-shaped island (unlike
Moxon’s pocket globe depiction which veers east at its tip). The
globe is quite detailed for its size including: in North America,
Hispania Nova for the southwest, Florida for the southeast,
Virginia, Bermudas and also some bodies of water named; in Asia:
Peking in China, Caspian Sea, Ocean (Chinese); in Africa: Congo,
Guina, Biafara, Nilus R(iver), Niger R(iver), and much more; in
South America: Peru, Chili, Brasil, Patagonia, Guiana, Terra
Firma, Granada, etc. Mountains are mole hills scattered about,
esp. in
Asia. Outline color is vivid and thick. Varnish
is quite good, still very clear. There is some abrading at the
polar pin holes, a rust spot near the South Pole, a dent in
Japan. A crack runs from north India through China with a scrape
about 3mm x 1.5mm off the coast of South China. Southeast of this
are three smaller scrapes just above the equator. A hairline
crack runs across the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Overall, the
appearance is quite good, despite the minor discrepancies.
Each half of the fishskin-covered
case is made of four quadrants for a total of eight joins. Three
of these joins have narrow gaps, three have wider gaps and two are
perfect. Two sets of twelve hand-colored engraved celestial
half-gores and polar calottes are fitted into the concave case.
They are unvarnished and colors of the constellations remain
bright. The mythical figures face in the opposite direction
normally seen for concave celestial gores. They are geocentric,
depicted as through the viewer was on Earth. There is some
dusting to the paper gores and a bit of fading, yet quite
presentable overall.
This pocket globe signed by Phillip
Lea alone, despite ample space in the cartouche for another name,
is, to the best of our knowledge, the only such example known to
exist.
SOLD. |
