Wright’s New Improved Terrestrial Globe.

Exceptionally Rare Wright Family 18th Century English Style Terrestrial Globe

Wright’s New Improved Terrestrial Globe.

WRIGHT, Thomas II.

Item Number: 96537

London: Sold by W. & S. Jones, c. 1795.

Rare late 18th Century Wright family terrestrial globe. The globe measures 8 inches in diameter with a brass meridian and 14 inch mahogany hand-colored horizon ring. Mounted on an English style ebonised oak stand. 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 plaster sphere with a tiny pointed bushing to the north pole. Native to London, the Wright family’s lineage included five generations of Thomas Wrights between 1718 and 1842, this globe was likely produced by Thomas Wright II. The entire piece measures 13 inches tall. In near fine condition. Rare and desirable.

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.

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