Molyneux Globe
Emery Molyneux (d.1598/99)
Category
Globes
Date
1592
Materials
Wood, beech, oak, paper, plaster, sand, gesso, paint, glass
Measurements
800 mm (Height)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex (Accredited Museum)
NT 486024
Summary
A terrestrial globe by Emery Molyneux (d.1598-1599) is dated 1592 and is the earliest such English globe in existence. It is weighted with sand and made from layers of paper with a surface coat of plaster engraved with elaborate cartouches, fanciful sea-monsters and other nautical decoration by the Fleming Jodocus Hondius (1563-1611). There is a wooden horizon circle and brass meridian rings. Stand: A six turned-leg stand supporting a wooden rim around the circumference of the globe, the base of the legs united by three stretchers and a circular platform with a support to the brass meridian ring, the whole coated in gesso and painted, the top of the rim with a layer of paper. Display case: A hexagonal glazed frame with 18 panes of glass, tapered at the top, sitting on a moulded hexagonal plinth.
Provenance
Tradition has it that the globe was given to the Wizard Earl, Henry Percy, ninth Earl of Northumberland by Sir Walter Raleigh when they were both prisoners in the Tower. By descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72) arranged for the acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by H.M.Treasury.
Makers and roles
Emery Molyneux (d.1598/99), maker Jodocus Hondius the elder (1563 - Amsterdam 1612), engraver William Sanderson, engraver and publisher