What little Gods we are -- generous and petty by turns. Whether we are beggars on the street or lords on the lawn, our pockets might contain worlds.
Or so it might have been for some Georgian gentlemen with these elegant pocket globes, one celestial and one terrestrial, crafted of fine hardwoods by Newton and Son (London, 1820).
For those of you seeking metaphors for colonial hubris or materialist aplomb, search no more.
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For those eager for more detail on the object and phenomenon itself, antique dealer George Glazer writes of Newton: "In 1783, John Newton launched his globe making business with the first versions of this pocket globe and case, one co-published with the engraver William Palmer (fl. 1765-1803) and soon thereafter, one under his own imprint. Newton had apprenticed with Thomas Bateman, successor to Nathaniel Hill, and utilized the plates of Hill's 1754 pocket globe, adding recent discoveries by Captain Cook."
Pocket globes as viewed here were produced beginning in the latter half of the eighteenth century, and were often crafted of wood, ivory, and papier-mache. They relied on the engraver's art for the maps themselves. Cases were often made of fishskin and lined with celestial gores, in the case of terrestrial globes. I have yet to find one not of English manufacture.
18th and 19th century pocket globes group (Trevor Philip & Sons Ltd.)
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