Details
SPHERE ARMILLAIRE SUPPORTEE PAR CHRONOS EN ARGENT ET VERMEIL
PAR JAKOB MANNLINCH, TROPPAU (OPAVA), VERS 1630
Sur base ovale à décor de masques auriculaires encadrant des cartouches repoussés de scènes allégoriques, l'ombilic à décor d'oves sur fond amati, la terrasse appliquée d'une salamandre et d'une grenouille, Chronos tenant d'une main sa faux et de l'autre la sphère armillaire composée de deux méridiens, deux cercles polaires, les tropiques et l'équateur, un méridien gravé et divisé avec les signes du zodiaque et leur représentation graduée par deux degrés et numérotée par dix, un axe central supportant une sphère représentant la Terre, surmonté d'un cadran avec deux fois les chiffres 1 à 12, poinçons sur la base, dont les marques de contrôle austro-hongrois de 1806
Hauteur: 34,5 cm. (13½ in.)
1002 gr. (35.35 oz.)
Provenance
Collection Louis Laroche-Ringwald, Bâle.
Vente, Paris, 17 avril-16 juin 1893, Catalogue des objets d'art et de haute curiosité antiques, du moyen-âge et de la Renaissance composant l'importante et précieuse Collection Spitzer, dont la vente publique aura lieu à Paris 33, rue de Villejuste, du lundi 17 avril au vendredi 16 juin 1893, vol. III, p. 29, lot 1778.
Collection I et S Goldschmidt.
Collection Nathan M.T Sondheimer.
Galerie J. Kugel, Paris.
Literature
F. Spitzer, la collection Spitzer: Antiquités-Moyen Âge-Renaissance, Paris, 1890-1892, vol. III, p. 29, no. 79.
Référencé dans le M. Rosenberg, op. cit., vol. IV, numéro 9383 d) avec indication: vente Fréderic Spitzer, Paris, 1893, Vol. III, pg. 29, no. 79.
Exhibited
Exposition Troppau, 1904, catalogue illustré 67.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT payable at 19.6% (5.5% for books) will be added to the buyer’s premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis
Further details
A RARE SILESIAN PARCEL-GILT MODEL OF CHRONOS SUPPORTING AN ARMILLARY SPHERE
MAKER'S MARK OF JAKOB MANNLINCH, TROPPAU (OPAVA), CIRCA 1630
On oval base, the border repoussé and chased with auricular masks framing cartouches with allegorical scenes with arcading above, the stem formed as Chronos, standing on a terrace applied with a salamander and a frog, holding his scythe with his left hand and supporting with his bowed neck and his right hand, an armillary sphere composed of two meridians, two polar circles, tropics and equator, with a finely engraved meridian, divided into the houses of the Zodiac with their pictorial representations and symbols graduated by 2 degrees, and numbered by 10, a central axis bearing a sphere for the Earth, capped with an hour circle engraved 1-12 twice, marked on base including an Austro-Hungarian control mark for 1806
Jakob Mannlich born in Augsburg moved to Troppau (now Opava in the Czech republic) in 1628 where he became a goldsmith, although he seems to have maintained his links with Augsburg. Heinrich Mannlich, probably his son born in Troppau, returned to his father's hometown and registered there as a goldsmith in 1658.
The armillary sphere is a demonstrational model of the universe. Composed of several rings (Armillae in Latin) and a band for the Zodiac, it represents the apparent movement of the celestial sphere around the Earth and marks the Sun's annual progress around the ecliptic.
Their use can be traced back to antiquity and the handful of earliest extant examples date from the Middle Ages. But it was in the 16th and 17th centuries that their construction reached a peak and they became such iconic instruments of science. Elaborate and decorative examples were made for princely collections and they became symbolic of astronomy in paintings and engravings of the time.
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