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Lot Essay
Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr (1671-1750) was one of the most prolific of the globe-makers of early 18th-century Nuremberg, as well as being a distinguished mathematician, translator, writer, editor and teacher. He studied in Altdorf and Halle, and travelled for some time in Germany, England and the Netherlands. Professor of Mathematics at the Aegidien Gymnasium in Nuremberg from 1704, globe-making was only a small part of his general efforts to encourage interest in science, in particular the progressive work of the likes of Newton, Huygens and Descartes, and transmission of this knowledge throughout Europe. He was the translator of several works on astronomy and cartography from French and German, such as Nicolas Bion's L'usage des globes célestes et terrestres, et des sphères and Astronomy by Thomas Street, as well as producing works of his own, including the Atlas novus coelestia of 1742. In addition, his work involved carrying out various astronomical and meteorological observations, and experiments with electrical phenomena. Indeed, it seems likely that his death in 1750 was was the result of an electric shock received whilst investigating the then newly-invented electrical condensors.
Van der Krogt suggests that it may have been an association with Johann Baptist Homann (1664-1724) which awakened an interest in globes, starting with his contribution of an article entitled Einleitung zur Geographie for Doppelmayr's atlas of 1714. The pair here offered are examples of Doppelmayr's first globes, of 1728. As a first attempt, they are extremely - albeit unsurprisingly - impressive, both in design and in execution. Stevenson records that there 'are scarcely any map records of the period more interesting than those to be found on this globe of Doppelmayr's'. There had already been several attempts to provide for the demand for globes in Germany following the decline of the Dutch globe-making industry, but Doppelmayr was the first to achieve real success and he soon dominated the German market for finely drawn and constructed globes. Doppelmayr worked with the engraver Johann Georg Puschner I (1680-1749), who may well have been the maker of the spheres, mountings and stands as well. Johann Georg Puschner II continued to publish the globes after 1749. When the copper plates came into the hands of Nuremberg publisher and pencil-maker Wolfgang Paul Jenig (d.1805), he reissued and updated Doppelmayr's globes with considerable commercial success, the final reissue being published by Johann Bernard Bauer (1752-1839) in 1808; their general commercial availability for such a long period of time is testimonial to how prized they were.
Van der Krogt suggests that it may have been an association with Johann Baptist Homann (1664-1724) which awakened an interest in globes, starting with his contribution of an article entitled Einleitung zur Geographie for Doppelmayr's atlas of 1714. The pair here offered are examples of Doppelmayr's first globes, of 1728. As a first attempt, they are extremely - albeit unsurprisingly - impressive, both in design and in execution. Stevenson records that there 'are scarcely any map records of the period more interesting than those to be found on this globe of Doppelmayr's'. There had already been several attempts to provide for the demand for globes in Germany following the decline of the Dutch globe-making industry, but Doppelmayr was the first to achieve real success and he soon dominated the German market for finely drawn and constructed globes. Doppelmayr worked with the engraver Johann Georg Puschner I (1680-1749), who may well have been the maker of the spheres, mountings and stands as well. Johann Georg Puschner II continued to publish the globes after 1749. When the copper plates came into the hands of Nuremberg publisher and pencil-maker Wolfgang Paul Jenig (d.1805), he reissued and updated Doppelmayr's globes with considerable commercial success, the final reissue being published by Johann Bernard Bauer (1752-1839) in 1808; their general commercial availability for such a long period of time is testimonial to how prized they were.