Terrestrial globe
Artistic company C. Abel - Klinger
Nuremberg, circa 1860
H cm 31 x 22 cm (12.20 x 8.66 in); sphere 14 cm (5.51 in) in diameter
State of conservation: good. On the sphere there are slight visible signs of accidental bumping at the poles, as well as on New Guinea and England (vertical and more visible); some ink stains, especially at the South Pole and on the meridian that crosses North America.
The globe is composed of twelve whole gores of printed paper, juxtaposed and glued on a sphere made with a chalky base mixture.
The circle of the meridian, made of brass, bears the degrees of latitude.
A hollow octagon of wood bears the circle of the horizon, which has been printed on paper and glued on. It is marked in French with the amplitude, the direction of the winds, the days and months of the year and the names and symbols of the zodiac.
The globe is in French; there are no national boundaries.
Much of equatorial and southern Africa is unexplored. Lake Tanganyika is barely outlined, but Lake Victoria is missing: both of these were described for the first time in 1858. The southwestern part of the United States is also undescribed. Australia (which was so named after 1829) is called both “Australie”, and still “Nouv.le Hollande”. Tasmania is still defined as “Terre de Diemen”: in reality it should have been called “Terre de Van Diemen” (Van Diemen’s Land), a name used until 1856, when the island definitively assumed the name of Tasmania.
The base is made of wood and is composed of four arched uprights that support the circle of the horizon and end in a turned column. This rests, in turn, on a square base with concave sides.
In the southern Indian Ocean, between South Africa and Australia, the globe bears a cartouche with the inscription:
LA
TERRE
D’aprés
les plus nouvelles découvertes
NUREMBERG
institut artistique de
C. ABEL – KLINGER
Editeurs
Georg Johann Klinger (Nuremberg, 1764-1806) began publishing his first globes in 1790 under the name "J. G. Klinger’schen Kunsthandlung". After his death, the widow continued the activity until 1831, when it was bought by Johann Paul Dreykorn (1805-1875), who continued to publish globes with the same heading. In 1852 Carl Abel joined the management of the company and the name changed to "C. Abel-Klinger Kunsthandlung", as can also be seen in the cartouche of the present globe.
The company remained active until the beginning of the 20th century, publishing globes in various languages and in various formats.
Bibliography:
Van Der Krogt, Peter. Old Globes in the Netherlands, Utrecht 1984, pp. 173-179;
Dekker, Elly - Van Der Krogt, Peter. Globes from the Western World, London 1993, pp. 102, 106;
Van Der Krogt, Peter. Globes Neederlandici, Utrecht 1993, pp. 395-396;
Dekker, Elly. Globes at Greenwich, Oxford 1999, pp. 384-390.