Lot 291
291
A mid-17th-century Italian brass sector
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more
A mid-17th-century Italian brass sector

BY GIOVANNI MACCARI (FL. 1655-89), 1660

Details
A mid-17th-century Italian brass sector
by Giovanni Maccari (fl. 1655-89), 1660
circular hinge engraved with flower, silver nail head to centre, side A carrying scales for the regular solids, equal parts, squares and cubes, side B with scales for dialling[?], cords, polygons and metals, silver nail heads to the starbursts for 60° of cords and the hexagons, scale FERRO to edge of one arm, signed Ioannes Macarius Mirandolanus Fecit Romæ Anno 1660.
9¼in. (23.5cm) folded
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

AN EARLY SECTOR BY MACCARI. Maccari, of Mirandola, is noted, with Giacomo Lusverg (see following lot), for his 'well-constructed instruments enhanced by finely engraved decoration' (M. Daumas Scientific Instrument Makers of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries and their Makers (London: 1972), p. 66). Maccari's instruments include sectors, proportional compasses, and circumferentors, the majority dating from the latter 1660s to the 1680s and identifying this as an unusually early instrument by the maker. Apart from his work as an instrument-maker, Maccari was also commissioned by the astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini to build the sundial in the Basilica of San Petronio, Bologna.

More from Travel, Science & Natural History

View All
View All