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Lot 1
POCKET GLOBE; CUSHEE, RICHARD.
A New Globe of the Earth. London: R. Cushee, 1731.
22 October 2014, 13:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$18,750 inc. premium

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POCKET GLOBE; CUSHEE, RICHARD.

A New Globe of the Earth. London: R. Cushee, 1731.
A 3 inch (7 cm) diameter pocket globe in fish skin covered wood case with two brass hook-and-eye clasps. 12 hand-colored copper-engraved gores with 2 polar callotes over papier maché and plaster, each pole with pivot hole, signed within decorative cartouche in North Pacific, inside of case with 12 engraved hand-colored celestial gores depicting the northern and southern hemispheres with 48 Ptolemaic constellations, and a handful on others, including those of Hevelius. Some light soiling to gores of globe and case, a few small spots of loss and scratches to varnish, ¾ dent off west coast of north America, 1-long crack to case, 2 small ink-stains to one half of case.
Provenance: Sotheby's, lot 41 or 447, February 16, 1998.

A very finely made early eighteenth century pocket globe depicting California as an island, north-western America labelled as "Unknown Parts," Australia labelled "New Holland," the Dominion of Muscovy as well as the Great Wall of China are both noted. "Richard Cushee (fl.1729-32) worked as a surveyor and globe maker in the Globe and Sun between St. Dunstan's Church and Chancery Lane in London ... The gores for the celestial globe are concave, drawn as seen from the inside. This can be clearly seen from the Great Bear, looking right. In the global view, the head of this constellation points leftwards. It is known that Cushee mirrored his figures: even on his concave celestial globe, the human figures are seen backwards. The constellations also include those introduced by Hevelius; next to the Great Bear, we can see Hevelius' sharp-eyed Lynx" (Dekker Globes from the Western World p 112). Dekker Globes at Greenwich GLB0044; Van der Krogt Old Globes in the Netherlands Cus 1.

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