Copernican Armillary Sphere (French)

French Copernican armillary sphere. Overall height 24”. The armillary rests on top of an ebonized wooden column and carries the scars of woodworms.  A cast metal yoke supports 12“ diameter brass rings representing the equinoctial and solstitial colures . A gray metal alloy ecliptic dial is inscribed every 10°, with months and zodiac in French.  The sun sits on top of the central column. The Earth and moon are at the end of a three gear transmission that keeps the earth’s axis aligned with the celestial poles. There are nine ivory balls, each on bent steel ribbons. Four of these are small balls mounted between Mars and Jupiter and these represent the newly discovered planetoids in the asteroid belt. Uranus is the last planet to be shown, so it was made after 1781. This armillary predates a discovery of Neptune-  discovered in 1846.

Probably produced by Felix Delamarche and Charles Dien in the first half of the 19th century. Charles Dien was french astronomer and cosmographer who published detailed atlases, works on astronomy, and manufactured both celestial and terrestrial globes in Paris.