Description
Globes coated with slating material were produced in the 19th and early 20th centuries as educational aids for the study of geography. Students practiced drawing maps in chalk on the surface. Slate globes with fully delineated outlines of continents, like this one, are very rare. Most are just solid black, though some have incised meridians and parallels, such as the one in the collection of the Stewart Museum in Montreal (Dahl and Gauvin, p. 191).
This globe is unsigned but attributed to the Czech globe maker J. Felkl & Son, Prague, based on the unusually large number of such globes extant in Prague. Felkl was the leading European globe producer of the late 19th century, exporting globes throughout England and Europe, and to the United States. For more information see our Guide to Globe Makers.
Reference:
Dahl, Edward H. and Gauvin, Jean-François. Sphaerae Mundi: Early Globes at the Stewart Museum. Canada: Septentrion, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2000.
