1852 Merriam & Moore Celestial Globe
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GUEST:
We found this globe in my grandmother's attic, and it was probably in the late '60s, my aunt had decided to remodel, and she was not particularly into antiques that weren't perfect, and so she began to throw things out of the second story window. Well, my mother happened to be visiting and she caught quite a few of the antiques and put them in the backseat of her car. This was one of the things she managed to catch.
APPRAISER:
And she physically caught it?
GUEST:
She physically caught this. My aunt threw it out the window, yelling, "Take it to the dump!"
APPRAISER:
It is a celestial globe dated to 1852 made by Merriam & Moore, stationers. There's a couple things that are interesting about it, most notably that it was made in Troy, New York. There are major globe and cartographers in Philadelphia and Boston, but the fact that it was made in Troy, a small town where there weren't many, it makes it a little bit more desirable to collectors. There are a few condition issues with it. If we spin it around here and come around to the back, we can see where a little of the paper has come away. There's a crack in the side here and there. Nice cast-iron base, and this is a more desirable base than some of the pieces, given the way it looks and sits. There are a couple of different types of globes that are out there. The terrestrial globes bring the real big money. You're also dealing now with an economic condition that's not as great as it was. Today, if you saw this at auction, I would anticipate you'd see it between $1,200 and $1,600. And it would not surprise me if it went up above that. In '05 had you seen it, however, it probably would have been closer to $2,000 or $3,000. All in all, it wasn't a bad catch out of a window.
GUEST:
No, good catch, Mother.
Appraisal Details
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