A great globe related book find..............or is it a catalog...........?

     OK,  so I've been looking for one of these books for quite a while. It is a publication that amounts to  essentially a 200 plus page ad for the AH Andrews company.  It's title, misleading and not reader friendly;  "A teachers guide to illustration: A manual to accompany Holbrook school apparatus "
     What is that title about.......?   Well as I mentioned it's a well disguised ad for all things Andrews. This is the twelfth edition, also I believe the last edition published from (1873).
     So why is this important...? Well it's a great reference to show how Andrews kept using the Holbrook name, many years after acquisition, and it's a great way to see how advertising was done in the mid 19th century.  It's quite a thing really to read through a book that is disguised essentially as a series of ads one after another for all manner of school apparatus disguised as a teaching guide.

Quite the shabby volume?

   So this is it a small rectangular volume about 8 inches by 5 inches hard bound with a guilt edge.  Inside A H. Andrews peppers the reader with all manner of come ons in an effort to lure your business for it's globes, teaching aids, and so forth. This book is packed with many illustrations that show the various apparatus including globes of course. In fact as a " teachers guide" there is a complete handbook to globes encompassing 83 of the total 211 pages.
     So this tome serves as both globe catalog as well as globe handbook for the combined Andrews/ Holbrook company circa 1873.   If nothing else it is a great " look behind the curtain" at the AH Andrews early years, the very start of Chicago globe making .

     These photos show the catalogue portion of this guide book,  I have obviously focused on the globe offerings but there are small write ups covering several other items in the Andrews repertoire.
    The last photo shows the price list for 1873, this I find fascinating because it is a snap in time. It really gives us insight into what these items cost 150 years ago. I found it strange that the Holbrook's 5 inch globe was $2.25,  but their 6 inch globe was more than double at $5.00 why such a price disparity .......?
     Questions like this are reason enough to find and read this great little guide.   I'll tell you the bit I have read was  pretty good for a sales text.  whoever wrote this was really trying to be informative, and not boring.   What good is a boring advertisement ?
      As I write this post I am completely aware of the fact that there are probably 8 other people in the world who even care that this book exists. Of those 8 probably zero will ever stumble across this post.......oh well perhaps I'll inspire a ninth!



I know your dying to know where you can get your hands on a copy of this wonderful gem!   Fear not!   Amazon.com  has got you covered with a reprint copy $26 hardback  $11 soft cover. Mine is original and was quite a lucky find.  I'll tell you that story now.  I was browsing Abe Books as I do from time to time looking for globe related items and I found buried in the deep reaches of the
site this copy for sale from Galloway Ireland! So I hurried up and ordered lest some other globe afficinado snatch it out from under me.  Truth be told it probably sat in that booksellers inventory for YEARS until I stumbled by. If you too want an original text then  Murray Hudson has a copy of this tome as well and here I that link : Guide to Illustration his edition is a bit older 1868.

     Thank you dear reader for letting me share this little globe tid bit with you I hope you are enjoying your hunt for globe treasures as much as I am!