Inventory no. 30402 - Former Display Label
Indian astrolabe
? late 18th or early 19th century
Not signed or dated; brass; diameter 552 mm
The rete has thirty-five named stars. The position of each star is marked by a triangular or dagger-shaped pointer arising from a narrow rectangular base. The rete is of plain design without decorative tracery. The ecliptic is graduated to 1° in groups of five and has the zodiac signs named. The kursi is high and lobed, and cut from one sheet of metal with the mater. There is no raised limb and there are no plates. On that part of the mater extending beyond the rete a degree scale is engraved reading to 1° in groups of six numbered sequentially 1 to 60. The back is engraved with a degree scale numbered in the upper two quadrants only. In the upper-left quadrant is a nonagesimal sine-cosine graph, and in the lower two, a double shadow square of twelve and seven divisions. The alidade is fitted with a sighting-tube. The single plate is drawn for latitude 27° (Jaipur) and has almuncantars drawn for each degree. The azimuth lines are continued below the horizon along which they are numbered. An unequal-hour scale is also drawn below the horizon.
This well made instrument is exceptional because of its size.
From the collections of Alain Brieux, Paris, and of the Time Museum, Rockford, Illinois.
Purchase
[88-19]