Catalog Archive
Auction 118, Lot 100

"Cram's Universal Terrestrial Globe 10 1/2 Inch", Cram, George F. & Company

Subject: Globes

Period: 1938-40 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Printed Color

Size:
10.5 x 14 inches
26.7 x 35.6 cm
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George Franklin Cram was a civil war veteran who marched with Sherman prior to his career as a map publisher. In 1867, George F. Cram and his uncle, Rufus Blanchard, founded the company Blanchard & Cram in Evanston, IL. The company manufactured and sold maps and atlases. Cram became the sole owner two years later and renamed it the George F. Cram Company. They sold a wide variety of atlases including the popular Unrivaled Atlas of the World which was printed continuously from the 1880s to 1952. In 1921, George Cram sold his business to one of his largest customers, E.A. Peterson of the National Map Company. The company is to this day producing quality maps and globes.

This wonderful terrestrial desk globe is constructed with 12 color lithograph, coated paper gores over pasteboard. Raised on an offset central axis mounted on a single short angled wood pillar held by a round metal stand. The oceans are finished in turquoise with the International Date Line and trade routes, in statute miles, shown in red. This example, with a time dial at the North Pole, also shows Manchuria (Manchoukou) as having been seized by Japan, and not recognized by the United States. Another interesting feature is the Sargasso Sea prominently displayed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. This globe is catalog No. 105. A very nice desk globe in as fine condition as possible.

References:

Condition: A

This globe is in near fine condition with the gores clean and bright. Tiny depression near Antarctica.

Estimate: $350 - $450

Sold for: $250

Closed on 3/6/2007

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