Miniature pocket globe in colourful card box

London, 1857 by J. Manning
diameter of 1,75 inches / 4,5 cm.

This lovely miniature terrestrial globe consists of twelve copper engraved, hand coloured gores over a wooden base. The gores are varnished. The colouring is both subtle and original. With a central pin contained in a colourful card box.

A little about miniature globes: The miniature or pocket globe was a British invention, introduced to the world by Joseph Moxon in 1673 when he produced a 3-inch globe. To own a pocket globe is to have the whole world in miniature. Pocket globes were never to be taken very seriously – they never served any practical purpose; their size makes accurate calculations impossible, and they tend to lack the rings and dials for most common manipulations. No, they were seen more as a status symbol, or a lovely decorative artistic artefact to reside on a gentleman’s desk or small table. There is a school of thought that some of the cheaper pocket globes may have aided children’s education. Today, they reflect a lost and never-to-be-forgotten age of exploration and discovery. The heyday or peak time for the pocket globe was the late 18th century.