Globe céleste ou toutes les étoiles observées jusqu'à présent sont réduites à l'an[n]ée 1800.

12 engr. gores, on a sphere, diam. c. 31 cm, clipped at an ecliptic latitude of 70°, and 2 polar calottes, hand-coloured (cleaned and revarnished).

Mounted in a fully engraved and graduated brass ring with on top an unusual pointer brass hour ring (some re-touching to the meridian and hour ring). The 19th-c. wooden stand in Louis XVI-style supports the wooden horizon ring covered with printed paper figuring a zodiacal grid, calander and compass directions. The stand, overall height c. 56 cm, consists out of 4 columbed legs, with gilt grooves, supported by 4 cross stretchers and a round turned feet. Excellent condition.

Delightful celestial globe displaying the most recent discoveries in astronomy, incl. the constellations newly described by N.-C. de Lacaille and the constellation Custos Messium that La Lande named after his friend Charles Messier. The freemason La Lande (1732-1807) was famous for his research on celestial mechanics (parallaxes of the moon, the sun, etc.) and for his important scientific vulgarisation. Curiously, our globe is dated "1774", while all other copies recorded and consulted show 1775, some even later. This stand-alone globe was published to pair with the terrestial globe by Rigobert Bonne (1727-1794). The bright colouring might surprise but corresponds to the taste of the era of Louis XVI, a similar colour scheme can be found in the fashion of the time.
Ref. BnF (dated 1775). - Dekkers & Van der Krogt, Globes from the western world, pl. 17 (id.).