1900 Philip / Betts Portable Globe (perfect condition)

John Betts (c. 1800 - 1863) was a British publisher, globe, map maker, and engraver. He maintained London offices at 7 Compton Street Brunswick Sq., from 1839-46, and at 115 Strand after 1846. Betts issued educational material, games, and his famous patented cloth collapsible globes. In the late 1850s and early 1860s he operated as the London agent of American publisher Joseph Hutchins Colton (1800 - 1893). When Betts died in 1863, production of many of his products passed to George Philip and Son and Stanford's Geographical Establishment. More by this mapmaker...

George Philip (1800 - 1882) was a map publisher and cartographer active in the mid to late-19th century. Philip was born into a Calvinst family in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Around 1819 he apprenticed himself to William Grapel, a Liverpool printer and bookseller. Fifteen years later, in 1834, Philip founded his own Liverpool book and map firm. Philip's earliest cartographic ventures were mostly educational material issued in tandem with John Bartholomew Sr., August Petermann, and William Hughes. In 1848, Philip admitted his son, George Philip Jr. (1823 - 1902) into the firm, renaming it George Philip and Son Ltd. George Philip Jr. ran the firm until his death in 1902, by which time it had developed into a major publishing concern. His successors established the London Geographical Institute, a factory where they embraced modern printing techniques to produce thousands of economical and high quality maps. In April 1988, George Philip & Son was acquired by Octopus Publishing, a branch of Reed International. Nonetheless, today the firm trades and publishes to this day as George Philip and Son. Learn More...