This month the University Museum enlarged its globe collection by the acquisition of a 19^th celestial globe made in Prague by the Jan Felkl company. He was the second manufacturer in history to create globes in a Polish-language version, the first one being the Abel-Klinger company of Nuremberg. The Prague manufacturer provided terrestrial globes, orreries (planetary models) and other planetariums in 18 different languages for school use.

The map of the newly purchased object was drawn by Mirosław Suchecki, who began his collaboration with the company ca. 1866. This, combined with the Jan Pelkl w Pradze signature (meaning ‘Jan Pelkl in Praga'), allows the object to be dated to the years 1866-1870.

Celestial globes of Felkl manufacture seldom appear on the market, and those representing constellations described in Polish are of special value. Some of the names are out of use today (e.g. Drozd – in Polish 'thrush'), others have changed their form (Tarcza Sobieskiego –  The Sobieski Shield).

The Museum collections feature an analogous terrestrial globe of identical size (21 cm in diameter), signed Jan Felkl i Syn, Roztoky – Praga. The globe has no metal meridian, but its map was also created by Mirosław Suchecki, thus it is dated to the period 1878-1884 . When their renovation is completed, both globes will make a unique and interesting pair of exhibits.

Małgorzata Taborska Ph.D.