Lane’s Celestial Globe, 1811

Lane’s Celestial Globe, 1811,

3 inch pocket globe, with 12 hand-coloured engraved paper gores, calottes at poles, and paste-over rectangular title cartouche, the night sky coloured blue (except for along ecliptic line) with constellations left uncoloured, over plaster sphere, varnished, axis pivots, housed within original shagreen clamshell case, with hooks and eyes, plain paper interior lining, surface abrasion to ursa minor figure, some loss to case cover.

***Nicholas Lane (fl. 1775 - 1783), was particularly associated with the production of a pair of pocket globes in about 1779, with gores derived from those designed by James Ferguson (1710 - 1776). The globe was updated in 1807 by his son Thomas Lane (fl. 1801 - 1829), who continued to revise the globe up until the 1820s.

Pocket globes’ lack of precision made accurate calculations impossible and makers continued to use pictorial constellation figures, even after they fell out of use on larger, scientific globes. Pocket globes were therefore more likely to serve as status symbols or educational aids.