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1825 Pop-up Globe! As part of our continued desire to share unusual pop-up and movable books with our visitors, we're sharing this little gem from the past. A man named Augustin LeGrand designed this French paper mechanism in 1825. It's named "Globe artificiel et mécanique à l'usage du petit géographe," which translated into English means "The Little Geographer's Artificial and Mechanical Globe." On the back, it says: (in French, of course) "The globe, thus positionned, shows the eye everything that is written in the text; by putting it in the sun or in the candle light, and by making it spin in your hand, one can make happen every movement and effect described in the board. By letting the cords loose again, one folds the globe to pocket size, thus allowing it to be taken and studied, even during a stroll." Four pages fold out from the center as a little portfolio, encasing and protecting the collapsed globe inside. The portfolio is about the size of a paperback novel, and just about every inch of space inside is crammed with information about geography and the relation of the earth to the sun. Under the loose page there was a surprise; someone had pressed flowers inside! Who knows how long they've been there, this piece has been around for 180 years! Perhaps when the original owner was taking a stroll and studying their globe as the promotion on the back suggests, they spotted some flowers to press... The globe itself is made of six panels, printed with colored engravings, attached to each other by a heavy ribbon glued around the inside. A string is attached to the top and bottom points of the panels: then all 6 strings are tied together. To form the globe, a tiny sleeve slides down the strings until it touches the paper. The panels bend to meet each other at that point, forming the globe that you see in these pictures. The globe has it's own pink (a very common color for movable slipcases in the early 19th century) slipcase that has helped keep it safe for the past 180 years! The beautifully illustrated cover of the portfolio that holds the globe. The back cover has a little zodiac illustration on it; the light rays in the center are highlighted with gold leaf! As the pages of the portfolio unfold, the collapsed globe inside is revealed. There's even an extra page placed inside with more diagrams and illustrations on it, because they couldn't fit everything in the portfolio itself! The front and back of the extra page of diagrams...one of them shows the zodiac calendar with the sun in the center and the earth rotating around it. The flat globe, before the strings are tightened to give it shape. The globe, halfway through opening... 180 years old and it still works!

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