Lot 64: Georg Christoph Eimmart (1638-1705) - [Terrestrial and Celestial gores for a pair of 30cm diameter globes. c.1704-]1705

Georg Christoph Eimmart (1638-1705)
EIMMART, Georg Christoph. 1638-1705. [Terrestrial and Celestial gores for a pair of 30cm (12-inch) diameter globes.] Nuremberg: Terrestrial dated 1705; [Celestial c.1704].Rare complete set of gores for a pair of 30cm (12-inch) diameter globes, on full uncut sheets with deckle edges. Eimmart is described in Tooley's Dictionary of Mapmakers as: 'Astronomer, geographer, copper engraver and globemaker from Regensburg. Worked in Nuremburg from c.1660, where he built his own observatory and many of the instruments which equipped it.' It seems probable that these 30cm globes, issued at the very end of his life, were modelled on Valk. He collaborated closely with J.B. Homann, and consequently unused globe gore sheets are sometimes included in Homann's atlases. This set is completely uncut, and therefore has only recently been bound. We can only trace three incomplete sets of gores selling at auction (ABPC/RBH). Dekker records 5 sets of globe gores in institutions and just 3 pairs of mounted globes, of which 4 celestial and 2 terrestrial. Dekker Globes at Greenwich pp.330-332.Folio (575 x 338mm). A complete set of gores for a pair of 30cm (12-inch) globes, comprising 4 double-page sheets (each approx. 570 x 660mm) mounted on guards, each sheet with 4 engraved plates, the plates with the northern half-gores numbered I-IV in roman and the southern 1-4 in arabic, each plate with 3 half-gores, making up two globes each of 24 half-gores; both globes have individually numbered gores in roman 1-12 in the tips of the southern half-gores. Terrestrial: all coloured by a contemporary hand, with a dedicatory cartouche signed and dated by Eimmart, the two polar calottes on plates IV and 4. Celestial: uncoloured, but with the stars highlighted in yellow, the two polar calottes on plates II and 3, the dedicatory cartouche describing the star configurations as taken from Hevelius, with star positions as of 1700. Uncut with full deckle edges (some very minor marginal nicks and short tears, some with minor repairs, faint finger-soling mostly confined to margins, some light staining at top margin of final sheet). Modern calf.