Classic Design: Furniture, Silver & Ceramics

Classic Design: Furniture, Silver & Ceramics

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 118. A Pair of Celestial and Terrestrial 42 1/2 Inches Large Library Globes after Vincenzo Coronelli, by Greaves and Thomas, 20th Century .

PROPERTY FROM A NEW YORK PRIVATE COLLECTION (Lots 111-121)

A Pair of Celestial and Terrestrial 42 1/2 Inches Large Library Globes after Vincenzo Coronelli, by Greaves and Thomas, 20th Century

Lot Closed

April 16, 05:58 PM GMT

Estimate

40,000 - 60,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Both set in a reproduction Dutch Baroque style stand, heavy brass graduated meridian circle and hour ring, with brass support below, stained wooden octagonal horizon circle, recessed with hand-coloured horizon papers in 8 sections, the horizon supported by four turned ebonized legs with gilt-painted bands, ebonized bun feet, the legs united by oak cross-stretchers, and circular oak base plate with central globe support.


height 72 1/2 in.; diameter 60 1/2 in.

184 cm.; 154 cm.

For related literature see: 

Dekker, Elly, and van der Krogt, Peter, Globes from the Western World (London, 1993)

van der Krogt, Peter, Old Globes from the Netherlands (Utrecht, 1984)

van der Krogt, Peter, Globi Neerlandici (Utrecht, 1993)

Schmidt, Professor Rudolf, Globe Labels: an addition to the Catalogue "The World In Your Hands" (Vienna, 1995)

Wallis, Helen, ed., V. Coronelli Libro dei Globi 1693 (1701) (Amsterdam, 1969)

Zgner, Lother, Die Welt In Händen (Berlin, 1989)

Greaves and Thomas specialise in globes by Coronelli and their premises are located in Ryde, on the Isle of Wight. 

Vincenzo Coronelli (1650-1718) was a Franciscan monk. Trained originally as a woodcut engraver, he opened a globe workshop in Venice in 1686. He was well known for making a pair of monumental (151 in. diameter) globes for Louis XlV of France, and he established a reputation for larger examples. As these were expensive to produce, he established the Accademia Cosmografica degli Argonauti whereby subscribers could purchase printed gores of his 42 1/2 in. globe for completion by other craftsmen. He was a member of the Minorite Conventual (Franciscan) Order; later in life (1701) he rose to the Generalship of his Order. His Venetian convent became, under his leadership, a publishing center where hundreds of maps were drawn, engraved, and printed, and there he founded the first geographical society, who were the publishers of many of his works. Coronelli’s globes were issued in several editions. As the date was printed in an inscription on a rim surrounding the North and South polar constellations, these had to be trimmed off when the pieces were pasted onto the globe. The engravings of the constellation figures are brilliant examples of baroque art, with their striking large figures of men, animals, and objects. A larger, unique set of the celestial and terrestrial globes is displayed at the Bibliothèque Nationale François Mitterrand in Paris; another pair of the smaller globes is in the Library of Congress, Washington and a terrestrial globe may be found at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.