Celestial pocket globes

One of the objects shown on the PBS show “Find!” tonight was an eighteenth century pocket globe. At an estate of a woman in the northeastern part of the United States, was a baseball-sized, genuine sharkskin case. This case separated into two halves which enclosed a nicely rendered globe of the Earth. On the inside of the globe-enclosing sharkskin case was the night sky. . .much like a mini planetarium. The object was appraised by the two blond-haired twins Leigh and Leslie Keno (stars of the show and originally from “Antiques Roadshow”) for thousands of dollars.

Here is a little information about a fine example of one of these globes from the Lanman Globe Collection
(http://www.library.yale.edu/MapColl/globes.html):

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c. 1818, James Newton, London
Globe 22
Newton’s Improved Pocket Celestial Globe. London.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth century, many people who could afford it carried pocket watches. As time went on, people took to carrying “pocket-sized” versions of other items such as barometers, and even globes. some were either mounted on stands like conventional globes, others were enclosed in special cases to make them more portable, as this one was. The first one is believed to have been made by the British mathematician Joseph Moxon in the late 1600s, and the Newton family was one of the many British firms who produced such globes. Their London firm was founded by James Newton (probably the father of the James Newton who made this particular globe), who was born in 1748.

This globe is only 7.6 cm in diameter. It is enclosed in a spherical case of shagreen (sharkskin) with twelve colored, engraved, celestial gores pasted inside. The case is held together by a hinge, and can be locked with two hooks.
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In conclusion, here is a link to a couple of images of this item:
http://www.library.yale.edu/MapColl/globe22.gif