Charles Smith and Son.
Smith's Terrestrial Globe; Smith's Celestial Globe.
Diameter 18 inches (46 cm); Overall height 43 inches (109 cm).
London, Strand, ca. 1825.

A fine pair of library globes each made up of two sets of twelve engraved globe gores, hand-coloured in outline with title cartouches, later varnish. Brass hour circles and meridian circles, each with an engraved graticule to one face. The globes mounted on their original elegant English mahogany tripod stands, original compasses without pointers, papered horizon bars supported by four quadrants, with central turned wooden pillar and curved feet and brass shoes and castors.

A fine pair of attractive library globes on distinctive English-style stands by Charles Smith and Son. Globes were an essential element to any Englishman's library or stud, and Smith was among the leading English globe makers of the early 19th Century. He was the Engraver and Map Seller Extraordinary to HRH Prince of Wales. Charles Smith started out his map publishing business in London around 1803, but with his son joining the business they branched out into the Globe markets, principally because of the decline in the Cary and Newton globe production. His globemaking business was taken over by George Phillips and Son.