The Excelsior 19th Century American Terrestrial Globe.

WACHOB AND MCDOWALL,.

Item Number: 95175

Scranton: Wachob and McDowall, c. 1880.

Scarce late 19th Century American terrestrial globe by Wachob and McDowall. The globe measures 7 inches in diameter with a brass meridian and 9 3/16 inch mahogany horizon ring which is decorated with hand colored paper gores. Mounted on an eight inch diameter mahogany pedestal. The horizontal ring is held by 4 brass spokes and is connected to the pedestal with a turned brass finial hub. Hand colored paper gores over a spun brass sphere with a tiny pointed bushing at each pole, instead of the traditional axle and yolk set up. Bi-metallic thumbscrew with steel threads and a brass double knurled thumb wheel. Founded by Isaac Smith Wachob. Excelsior School Furniture Co. was in business in Scranton, Pennsylvania in the mid 19th century, the firm was known to have produced only one globe: The Excelsior (Warner, Journal of the American Scientific Instrument Enterprise, Vol. 2 No. 2, 61). The entire piece measures 13 inches tall. In near fine condition. Exceptionally rare, no complete examples of this globe have appeared at auction.

The sphericity of the Earth was established by Greek astronomers in the 3rd century BC, with the earliest terrestrial globe appearing during that period. The earliest known globe was constructed by Crates of Mallus in Cilicia (now Çukurova in modern-day Turkey) in the mid-2nd century B.C.E. Now known as the Erdapfel, the earliest extant terrestrial globe was produced in 1492 by German mapmaker, navigator, and merchant Martin Behaim in Nuremberg, Germany. Traditionally, globes were manufactured by gluing a printed paper map onto a sphere, often made from wood.