Lot Essay
The planet Neptune, the seventh furthest planet from the sun, was discovered 1746, thus dating this fine planetarium some time in the first half of the 18th-Century
Details
A fine early 18th-Century brass German planetarium,
unsigned, the gilt sunball in the centre surrounded by five turned ivory and one silver planetary spheres of correspondingly differing sizes, on elegant revolving brass spindles with winged adjusting screws to central column, the two meridian circles each engraved on one side and divided in four quadrants graduated in degrees, with 90° at the poles, the ecliptic graduated 0°-360°, the outer side of the equatorial band divided in 360° and engraved with the names of the houses of the Zodiac in Latin and corresponding symbols, the inner side engraved every 5° and showing only the Zodiacal symbols, on turned mahogany column (some cracking) and plinth base -- 18½in. (47cm.) high
See Colour Illustration and Details
unsigned, the gilt sunball in the centre surrounded by five turned ivory and one silver planetary spheres of correspondingly differing sizes, on elegant revolving brass spindles with winged adjusting screws to central column, the two meridian circles each engraved on one side and divided in four quadrants graduated in degrees, with 90° at the poles, the ecliptic graduated 0°-360°, the outer side of the equatorial band divided in 360° and engraved with the names of the houses of the Zodiac in Latin and corresponding symbols, the inner side engraved every 5° and showing only the Zodiacal symbols, on turned mahogany column (some cracking) and plinth base -- 18½in. (47cm.) high
See Colour Illustration and Details