Terrestrial clockwork globe

Terrestrial clockwork globe. Geographical details on the sphere show California drawn as a peninsula. The Great Wall of China is depicted. In South America, there are two labels. New Guinea is still a part of the hypothetical southern continent, which is labelled. There are decorative ships and monsters. Part of the gore is missing in North Africa and the tropics and parallels have been redrawn in manuscript; 12 oceans are named.

A globe of this rank was published by Pieter van den Keere in 1613 but the 'Strait of Ie Maire' has been added to the present copy. No other copies of this rank are known to date. It is appropriate that the Janssonius gores of 1620 should be combined with a mid-17th-century watch movement but this globe was probably assembled during the late 19th, or early 20th century. If so, then care was certainly taken to disguise the fact that the work was done so recently.

The figure carrying the globe shows more of a similarity to the iconography of Christ on the cross than to Atlas or Hercules and may possibly have belonged to a 19th-century crucifix. The clockwork mechansim allows the globe to revolve at mean solar time about its polar axis, driven from within by a movement. For full details about the cartography and construction of this clockwork globe please refer to the related publication.

Object Details

ID: GLB0036
Collection: Astronomical and navigational instruments; Charts and maps
Type: Clockwork globe
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Janssonius, Johannes; Seyler, Johann Tomas
Date made: Gores: 1620; Watch movement: circa 1650 Globe assembled: 1930 Gores: 1620; Watch movement: circa 1650; Globe assembled: 1930
People: Janssonius, Johannes; Seyler, Johann Tomas
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection
Measurements: Overall: 280 x 120 mm; Diameter of sphere: 95 mm
Parts: Terrestrial clockwork globe