A Joslin globe catalog. An amazing find

     I want to share a couple of interesting items that came my way over the holiday season.  Again keeping with my interest in globe related ephemeral items .  Sometimes you hunt for things, and there are long stretches of time where nothing great turns up.  Then once in a while the stars align.

1.  Pictured here is a Joslin globe catalog,  this item blew me away when I saw it for sale as I'd never seen one like this before.   Every other Joslin catalog I've ever seen is essentially a few pages at the back of one of their globe manuals.  This is a 21 page catalog talking about every globe in their lineup, 6 inch, 9.5 inch, 12, and 16 inch globes. They mention Terrestrial, Celestial, as well as slated globes in various sizes.   A wealth of information I've checked World cat, the Newberry, BPL, and Library of Congress and no other copy turns up,  rare....certainly,  quite a thing.
     So why is this important,  well a catalog like this is the best way to learn about what was probably the most prolific globe maker in the United States in the 19th century.   I'm trying to figure out how old this catalog is, and two clues come up. Firstly Joslin is offering 9.5 inch globes, but no mention of 10 inch sizes....??  Secondly  Joslin became "Gilman Joslin & Son" in 1874 and thought this catalog the firm is referred to plainly as "Gilman Joslin"  So is this catalog early 1870's...?  I'm not sure yet,  Joslin offered the same styles of globes for decades so there are no clues there.

     Now I have a great back story as to how I came about this globe catalogue.   Christmas eve, a house full of people, and yours truly decides to do a quick eBay search,  so on the sly as everyone else is chatting, and eating I sneak on eBay, trying to hide my typing from everyone.  There it is as a 9 day auction,  so I do as I do and I fire off a BIN offer to the seller,   coincidentally the seller is in Japan of all places so two things work in my favor, 1 it's already morning, and 2 Though Christmas, it's just not as widely celebrated in that country.  So I get an almost instant reply, the BIN price is added, and at 9pm Christmas eve I buy myself this stocking stuffer,  I love it!!     Now this item was purchased at a book fair in Tokyo.  How a 130 year old American globe catalog came to be in a booksellers booth in Tokyo ( 6700 miles from Boston) I'll never know.  But as Larry McMurty aptly says  "anything can be anywhere" .

2. Next up I scored a great manual for Holbrooks Lunar Tellurion.  via Abebooks and a seller in Nebraska I was able to obtain this:
     This manual dates to 1888 and was included with each Tellurion purchased, keeping in mind that at this time the Holbrook products were all made by Andrews in Chicago, and they interestingly made their own similar Tellurion.  This manual is illustrated nicely, and will prove a great reference if I ever get ahold of the Tellurion that goes with it.. If your reading this and own the tellurion please contact me and I'll pass the manual on to you for the price I paid .

 I have one more interesting tid bit about this manual, It arrived in the most interesting envelope I've ever handled.  here's a pic:

16 vintage stamps, plus 21 additional cents!!! 

     This envelope was covered in 40 year old stamps!!   Plus an additional 21 cents modern postage required to mail this package. 18 cent stamps were out for less than a year before they bumped to 20 cent stamps both in 1981.