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Nathaniel Hill

A New Terrestrial Globe by Nath Hill, London 1754

Celestial Globe, London 1755

Pubblico le immagini e gli articoli che vengono dedicati a coppie di globi terrestri e celesti di Nathaniel Hill prodotti a Londra tra il 1754 e il 1755

Nathaniel Hill (fl1746-1768) was a surveyor, mathematician and instrument maker based in London. He started his career as an apprentice globemaker to Richard Cushee, and he later took on Cushee’s nephew, Leonard, as his apprentice. His shop was at the Globe and the Sun in Chancery Lane, and his trade card advertised “New and Correct Globes of 3, 9, 12 and 15 inches”. Hill’s most popular items were the three and nine-inch globes, which he published either as pocket globes, mounted on a stand or for orreries. After Hill’s death, his business was continued by Thomas Bateman, who took on John Newton and William Palmer as apprentices.

Prima coppia di globi pubblicati su Sic itur ad astra, il catalogo di stampe e libri d’arte del 2023 della Galleria Daniel Crouch Rare Books con sede a Londra e a New York che li vende per l’importo di 20.000 dollari.

This pocket globe by Hill shows the rapid changes in European knowledge of the world. Although it bears the same date as another globe he published in 1754, it shows some significant revisions, the most obvious of which is the addition of trade winds. In Asia, the Caspian Sea has been reduced in width to reflect the findings of the Russian nautical surveyor, Feodor Soimonov, who thoroughly surveyed the sea for the first time between 1719 and 1727, and published his findings in 1731. The most significant development is the redrawing of eastern Russia, influenced by Vitus Bering’s second expedition to the Kamchatka Peninsula. Bering spent ten years (1733–1743) exploring along northern Russia, mapping the Arctic coast of Siberia, and reaching Alaska in North America. Bering died of scurvy during the voyage, and an island off the Kamchatka Peninsula was eventually named in his honour. Stephan Krasheninnikov published the first detailed description of the peninsula, ‘An Account of the Land of Kamchatka’ in 1755, which is possibly where Hill acquired the new information.

Astronomy

The celestial gores, lining the case, are geocentric in orientation and, in a departure from most previous pocket globes, are concave, thus depicting the constellations as seen from earth. Previous pocket globes, most notably John Senex’s pocket globe of 1730, simply used gores intended for celestial globes, thus rendering the night sky in reverse when pasted to the inside of the case. The difference is most noticeable in the orientation of Ursa Major, with the bear facing in the other direction.

Dekker, Elly. (1999). Globes at Greenwich: A Catalogue of Globes and Armillery Spheres at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Oxford: Oxford University Press and the National Maritime Museum.

Van der Krogt, Pieter (1993). Globi Neerlandici: the production of globes in the Low Countries. Utrecht: HES.

Worms, L. and Baynton-Williams, A. (2011). British map engravers. London: Rare Book Society.

For Hill’s 1754 pocket globe see Dahl and Gauvin, pp.93–95 (Stewart Museum 1979.28.2)

The terrestrial globe demonstrates the cartographical confusion that still surrounded some areas of the world. Hill’s lack of knowledge of northwest America, as shown by the inscription ‘Parts Unknown’, leaves a substantial part of the continent blank and the coastline unfinished. The title cartouche has been strategically placed in the Pacific Ocean between America and Asia to avoid having to define the area more clearly. The cartouche is bracketed by a male figure possibly meant to represent Perseus (note the shield with a head of Medusa by his side), a female figure holding a pair of dividers, and a putto. The Bering Strait separating America and Asia appears but is unmarked, probably because its relationship to the northwestern American coastline was still not properly understood, although Vitus Bering had been the first European to sail it in 1728. Australia appears, albeit very out of shape, marked as ‘New Holland’, and a tiny section of ‘New Zeeland’, after the discoveries of Abel Tasman. The Antipodes would not be properly explored until the expeditions of James Cook, over a decade after this globe was made.

The globe also incorporates a host of new discoveries and voyages, with a patriotic preference for British adventurers. A line shows the route taken by Admiral George Anson, who circumnavigated the world from 1740 to 1744. The expedition set out to wreak havoc in the Spanish Main, and made a dramatic return to London with a captured galleon, only a tenth of the crew still alive and Anson in disgrace for summarily shooting a drunken crew member. The explorations of the English sailors John Davis, Henry Hudson and William Baffin are included in the Arctic.

The celestial globe shows the constellations drawn as figures over their star charts. There is a key showing the various sizes and brightness of individual stars.

Dekker, Elly. (1999). Globes at Greenwich: A Catalogue of Globes and Armillery Spheres at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Oxford: Oxford University Press and the National Maritime Museum.