Willem Jansz Blaeu (1573 – 1638), Terrestrial Table Globe

Willem Jansz Blaeu (1573 – 1638) Terrestrial Table Globe Amsterdam, 1602 [but after 1621] Diameter 9 in.; Height 15 in.  The globe made up of 12 engraved globe gores, hand-colored in outline, a few old stress cracks and some light restoration of globe surface, later varnish. The globe with a brass meridian circle (without graticule) is mounted in a 20th century Dutch-style 4-legged ebonized oak stand, with the horizon papered, but slightly lifting.  One of the earliest commercial globes to be issued by the Blaeu firm. Willem Blaeu, its founder, had worked with Tycho Brahe, the esteemed astronomer, from 1595 to 1596, and using Brahe’s new star catalog (not yet published), he issued a celestial globe for Anthonisz. Soon after, in 1598, he moved to Amsterdam to set up his own map and globe business. Seeing a gap in the market for a Dutch globe maker he set up in competition with Hondius, and by becoming the Globe maker to the VOC (Dutch East India Company) for whom he would supply terrest