Globe terrestre

se Fait et vend chez Desnos rue St. Jacques St. Severin. A  Paris, 1753.

Terrestrial globe, 3 ¼ inches in diameter (79 mm), papier mâché, covered with plaster coating and 12 hand-coloured engraved paper gores, graduated equator, tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, ecliptic and Premiere Meridian [fixe de l’isle de fer] (the prime meridian on the island of El Hierro which Louis XIII decreed in 1634); cartouche with decorative border, varnished, two metal pins, in its original turned fruitwood case, in fine condition.

A stunning French miniature pocket globe from the mid-eighteenth century, rich in geographical detail from the latest discoveries. An evocative artefact from the Age of Enlightenment.

The globe shows the discoveries made in the Pacific by the early European expeditions, prior to those of Cook and the grands voyages of La Perouse, Baudin, Freycinet, and Duperrey. It depicts the newly charted territory of Nouvelle Hollande as it was known from the most recent discoveries:  T[erre] de Wit is marked on the western coastline, as well as the partial coastlines of Van Diemen’s Land and New Zealand, based on the discoveries of the Dutch. The islands of N[ouvelle] Bretagne and the Is[les] de Salomon are marked in the Pacific Ocean, as well as the Isles Carolines, I[sles] Philippines (marking Mindanao and Luzon), Formosa, Canton and Coree (Korea).

Louis-Charles Desnos (1725-1805) was one of the most prolific and influential map and globe makers of his age, at a time when Paris was the major centre for map production in Europe. He married the widow of Nicolas Hardy, the son of Jacques Hardy, a globe maker active in the years 1738-1745. Desnos acquired Hardy’s inventory and tools, and expanded the company further through the acquisition of the inventories of the Jaillot family and of Nicolas de Fer. Desnos would be appointed Royal Globemaker to King Christian VII of Denmark, and continued publishing throughout the late eighteenth century.

Collections:

The only globe by Desnos recorded in Australian public collections is in the National Gallery of Victoria, a fine table globe from 1758, acquired from us in 2023.

We cannot trace another institutional example of this rare pocket globe

Reference:

untraced in the standard literature