A pair of 16-inch celestial and terrestrial globes by Charles-François Delamarche, Paris, 1803

Historical globes like the present pair are a snapshot of how much of the world was known at a certain point in history, and indeed, they were often iteratively updated: for example, this globe is dated 1803 but the cartouche details its revision history, including in 1792 with the discoveries of Captain Cook and in 1801 with those of the Count de Lapérouse. Charles-François Delamarche (1740–1817) presented himself as the next in line after the great cartographer and Geographer to the King Robert de Vaugondy, with the cartouches on these globes noting that their maps are based on Vaugondy’s models and that Delamarche himself is his “successeur”. Delamarche took the retailing of globes further than his by targeting a wider general public, the first French manufacturer of globes to successfully do so. One technique by which he achieved this was to replace some brass sections of the globe, such as the meridian, with stiff papered board, though the present examples preserve the more luxurious brass.¹

Delamarche passionately extolled the benefits of studying globes in the introduction to his book entitled “To the Young”, saying that “[Through the study of a globe,] you will be unable to behold without amazement the harmony that reigns between all the celestial bodies; you will admire the subtle simplicity with which unequal days and nights come to pass [... and] finally, you will grasp the connections that the Heavens can have with the various parts of the Earth.”²

Globes made by Charles-François Delamarche are in several major museum collections,³ and notable globes by his master Vaugondy are also in the Esterhazy collections and the Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire in Neuchâtel.⁴ A pair of celestial and terrestrial globes by Delamarche from the Louis XVI period sold for €162,000 at Christie’s in 2006. These were actually an updated edition of an original Vaugondy model from 1751, another example of which was sold offered at Sotheby’s Paris last year.⁵ Delamarche’s son Félix also continued the business after his death – a Delamarche set of armillary spheres and a terrestrial globe that sold at Sotheby’s in 2011 are from this later period, and are signed 1845.⁶

The stands of the present globes, meanwhile, are an updated version by Delamarche of a similar tripod green and parcel-gilt stand that was often used by Vaugondy earlier in the eighteenth century, seen on the Vaugondy globes that were formerly in the collections of Mrs and Mrs Stephen C. Hilbert and of Karl Lagerfeld.⁷

¹ C-F. Delamarche, Les usages de la sphère, et des globes céleste et Terrestre[…], Paris, 1799, pp.v-vi, viii (my translation). Available at: <https://archive.org/details/b28765321/> [accessed 14th April 2025]

² E. Dekker and P. van der Krogt, Globes from the Western World, London, 1993, p.63. Two globes and an armillary sphere by Delamarche are illustrated on pl.15, p.62.

³ The Museo Galileo in Florence holds several Delamarche globes including one from the Louis XVI period (Dep. SBAS, Firenze), while the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich holds a pair from circa 1805 (GLB0116 and GLB0117).

⁴ For the Esterhazy globe, see M. Klasz, ‘Globen-Restaurierung Schließung eines Lochs und Firnisabnahme mit Wasser an einem 18-Zoll-Globenpaar von Robert de Vaugondy aus dem Jahre 1790’, Papier Restaurierung, vol I, 2000, pp.19-24, available a: <https://doi.org/10.1080/15632628.2000.12461745> [accessed 8th May 2025]. For the Neuchâtel globe, see A. Lefebre, Étude pour conservation-restauration d’un globe céleste, Bibliothèque publique universitaire neuchâteloise, 16 April 2023. Available at <https://www.ateliervertdegris.com/projets/globe> [accessed 8^th May 2025] .

⁵ Christie’s Paris, 21st June 2006, lot 306 and Sotheby’s Paris, 11th December 2024, lot 116.

⁶ Sotheby’s Paris, 20th September 2011, lot 161. 

⁷ The Hilbert examples sold Sotheby’s New York, 24th May 2007, Lot 40 (US$ 450,000). The Lagerfeld examples sold Christie’s Monaco, 29 April 2000, Lot 75 (FF 2,017,500).