Dudley Sold at Auction Prices

DUDLEY ADAMS (1762-c.1830)

A pair of library globes, terrestrial and celestial. London: [celestial c. 1790], terrestrial dated 1797, diameter 18in. (46cm.), the terrestrial globe made up of 12 pairs of engraved gores, hand coloured to outline, seas green, the Pacific showing the tracks of Cook's Second and Third Voyages with all the latest discoveries, the celestial globe made up of 12 pairs of engraved gores laid to the ecliptic poles, celestial figures elaborately hand coloured, each globe with brass meridians and North Polar brass hour rings, engraved horizon circles, on four-legged, baluster-turned fruitwood stands, united by cross-stretchers with metal support for globe (gores very lightly browned, later varnish) -- overall height, 38in. (97cm.) A FINE PAIR OF LIBRARY GLOBES INCORPORATING THE LATEST DISCOVERIES OF CAPTAIN COOK IN THE PACIFIC. Dudley Adams was one of the first globe makers to incorporate Cook's new discoveries (all three voyages) in his library globes of 1789. This pair of c. 1790-1797 incorporates the Second and Third Voyage tracks only but still shows how important Cook's work in the Pacific continued to be, and how the English globe makers used it as an important selling point. The Adams family, father George (1704-1773) and sons George and Dudley issued some of the finest English library globes of the 18th century. George senior died in 1773 and George junior in 1795. By the 1790s competition from the Cary and Newton firms was intense, but Dudley managed to keep the business going until his bankruptcy in 1817. Cf. Dekker/van der Krogt Globes of the Western World p.111; cf. van der Krogt, Ada 9 (terrestrial 1789); Ada 20. (2)