The Age of Exploration. Antique Globe Ornament. 3.25"

A pocket universe It’s difficult to describe the feeling of going through a box of rubbish in an antique store and coming across a true treasure. This time my fingertips did the recognition even before my eyes saw it. A small sharkskin covered sphere, two hinged halves, a tiny lock. Inside was a precious little globe, issued by Ferguson of London in 1756.

A pocket universe… It’s difficult to describe the feeling of going through a box of rubbish in an antique store and coming across a true treasure. This time my fingertips did the recognition even before my eyes saw it. A small sharkskin covered sphere, two hinged halves, a tiny lock. Inside was a precious little globe, issued by Ferguson of London in 1756. The inside of the case was covered with twelve celestial paper gores, making the globe nest in the center of its proper universe as known at the time. It happened in the sixties at London’s Bermondsey Market. It was 5 AM, and I managed to buy it for less than twenty pounds. Why did I later sell it? I guess because I was a budding antique dealer at the time, agonizing over which direction to go; medieval religious art, or scientific and nautical? L. - in. / - cm. W. - in. / - cm. H. 4.13 in. / 10.49 cm. Diam. 3.35 in. / 8.51 cm.