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157. Könyvárverés

19th-century celestial globe by William and Alexander Keith Johnston. At the beginning, only universities and larger libraries were in the possession of such expensive, astronomical visual aids to assist the navigation education, however, later — similarly to wall maps — their aesthetics had been realised, thus, first they came to adorn the majestic, baronial libraries, then became the status symbol of the well-off, educated layer of the population. The company of the Johnston brothers produced maps and atlases for schools, and around the mid-19th century began the manufacturing of spheres. Their largest — 30-inch-diameter — globe won several medals at the Great Exhibition, in 1851 in London, and made them famous as well. Although the spheres and the legs were produced individually — manually —, in small quantities as luxury goods, the company exported globe-gores to several producers to America. The viewing point of a celestial globe is outside of the universe — the imaginary Earth is in the centre of the sphere. Besides its significant artistic value, our piece is also scientifically noteworthy since the constellation elements are shown on their appropriate places with the right brightness indication. The celestial globe is encircled by a marked brass meridian vertically, and a calendar and zodiac outer rim horizontally. It is mounted on a mahogany tripod stand with incurved legs, surrounding a compass needle over a finely detailed compass rose. Dimensions: 1060 x 610 mm. Diameter of the sphere: 457 mm (18 inch).