A fine and rare pair of celestial and terrestrial 12-inch table globes on stands by Dudley Adams of Fleet Street, London, each globe hand-coloured in outline, the celestial globe decorated with constellation figures arranged after John Flamsteed's tables, retaining their original varnish, metal axis, brass hour circles and meridian circles, each globe mounted on mahogany tripod stands with spiral fluted shafts with downswept legs to pointed feet joined by a cross-stretcher together with their original compasses and needles, the globes set on triform George III mahogany globe stands with moulded serpentine edges on three ring turned and reeded tapering legs headed by a patera and joined by a lower  conforming triform shelf on toupie feet.

Dudley Adams(1762-1830) who was the son of George Adams Sr. (1704-1773) left the family business in 1789 and established himself as an independent instrument-maker at 53 Charing Cross. Upon the death of his brother George in 1795, he returned to the family business in Fleet Street.
This beautiful pair of globes is based on his father's first 12 inch pair in 1760-66, with the updated geography of the Pacific supplied by his brother George. Dudley Adams kept the family business going until the firm went bankrupt in 1817, producing good quality library globes for the ever-enlarging English gentry of the early 19th century.  

These globes are sold together with a copy of George Adams' treatise describing and explaining the construction and use of “New Celestial and Terrestrial Globes”, dated 1766. The associated tri-form stands date slightly earlier then the globes and display elegant serpentine tops, showing a combination of French influence in their fashionable toupie feet and neoclassicism in their flower-headed fluted tapering legs.