NEWTON, London | Christie's

NEWTON, London

Details

NEWTON, London
NEWTON'S Improved Pocket Celestial GLOBE [c.1830]
A 3-inch (7.6cm.) diameter celestial pocket globe made up of twelve delicately hand coloured engraved gores, the equatorial graduated in degrees and numbered with Roman numerals I-XXIV, the ecliptic graduated in days and showing symbols for the houses of the Zodiac, the Colurus Solstitiorum, Colurus Equinociorum and North and South declinations graduated in days, the line of Celestial Latitude graduated in degrees, the northern and southern hemispheres marked respectively with Circle of Perpetual Apparition at London and Circle of Perpetual Occultation at London, the constellations depicted by mythical beast and figures and some scientific instruments, (some surface abrasions and discolouration), with steel axis pins and unengraved brass meridian half-circle.

See Colour Illustration and Detail (trade label)

Lot Essay

This typical Newton celestial globe would originally have been supported by a simple fruitwood stand; there is a small hole near the bottom of the meridian half-circle by which it would have been fixed at an angle of approximately 23½°.

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