Jon Baddeley
Specialist Consultant Collectors, Science & Marine
Various Properties
Lot 163Ф,Y
A Fine and Rare Thomas Blunt Combined Planetarium, Lunarium, and Tellurium, English, early 19th century,
15 September 2021, 14:00 BST
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £112,750 inc. premium
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Claire Tole-Moir
Head of Department
A Fine and Rare Thomas Blunt Combined Planetarium, Lunarium, and Tellurium, English, early 19th century,
the drum signed T. Blunt. London, the 9-inch cylindrical brass drum containing hand-cranked gearing for operating the planetarium, tellurium, and lunarium, the top-plate engraved with zodiac degree and calendar scales centred by stylised floral and palmette motifs, the circumference cut with teeth, the mechanism operated by winding handle to the side of the drum.
When set up as a tellurium, complete with brass sphere representing the sun, and a John Newton 2 1/2-inch terrestrial globe mounted within a silver meridian.
When set up as a lunarium, with similar construction to the tellurium with models representing the Earth and the moon, a thin rod protruding from the Earth tracks the orbit ring of the moon, the models above a silver-plated meridian and disc displaying the signs of the zodiac and the 29 1/2-day lunar cycle, marked PERIGEE.
When set up as a planetarium, with models representing Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. The Earth, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus each with brass subsidiary arms representing the moon or moons of each planet.
The whole raised on a turned brass column with folding tripod base, in 21in (53.5cm) high fitted mahogany case with brass holding handles to either side,
19 1/2in (49.5cm) high as tellurium
When set up as a tellurium, complete with brass sphere representing the sun, and a John Newton 2 1/2-inch terrestrial globe mounted within a silver meridian.
When set up as a lunarium, with similar construction to the tellurium with models representing the Earth and the moon, a thin rod protruding from the Earth tracks the orbit ring of the moon, the models above a silver-plated meridian and disc displaying the signs of the zodiac and the 29 1/2-day lunar cycle, marked PERIGEE.
When set up as a planetarium, with models representing Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. The Earth, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus each with brass subsidiary arms representing the moon or moons of each planet.
The whole raised on a turned brass column with folding tripod base, in 21in (53.5cm) high fitted mahogany case with brass holding handles to either side,
19 1/2in (49.5cm) high as tellurium
Footnotes
Provenance:
The Rachel Lambert Mellon Collection
Ex-Lot 1070, Sotheby's, New York, 21 November 2014.
The present orrery is a fine example combining three mechanical models for the motions of the Earth around the sun (tellurium), the moon around the Earth (lunarium), and of the solar system (planetarium). It is rare for an orrery to incorporate all three models, with many contemporaries producing only a tellurium and planetarium.
Thomas Blunt (d. 1823) founded the prominent family business Blunt & Son (also operating as Blunt T. & T.) on Cornhill, London in 1801, with his sons and apprentices Thomas, Edward, and William. Though a member of the Guild of Spectaclemakers from 1771, Blunt was known for producing an extensive variety of scientific, medical and optical instruments over the course of his career. In addition to orreries, Blunt and his business were known for their globes, microscopes, thermometers, and barometers, among other instruments.
Prior to establishing his own firm, Blunt was apprenticed in 1760 to the renowned instrument maker Edward Nairne, and was later appointed as instrument maker to King George III. Blunt's skill under Nairne's mentorship was eventually established formally as the two formed the partnership of Nairne & Blunt by 1791. The partnership of Thomas Blunt with his son Thomas is thought to have coincided with the retirement of Edward Nairne from the profession.