Charles François Delamarche (1740–1817) / Félix Delamarche (18th century – first half of 19th century). Copernican Armillary Sphere, ca.1826 (unsigned). 19 x 11 x 11 in. Engraving on paper, dissected and affixed to wood and pasteboard, metal-leafed wood sun, pasteboard discs on metal arms, and turned wood base. Missing moon; scattered areas of wear; overall toning; chipping of paint; some warping of one wood ring; base has some worm holes, chips, and areas of repair.
$9,000.00
An armillary sphere is an early astronomical device that models the movement and location of celestial bodies in relation to the earth or sun with spherical frameworks of rings and objects on rotating arms set on a central vertical axis. Armillaries with the earth at the center are referred to as having a Ptolemaic configuration. When the sun is at the center of the device, it is referred to as having a Copernican configuration.
This Copernican armillary has an Earth on a metal arm that allows it to rotate around the sun. Also, on arms are circular illustrated pasteboard plaques representing five planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter – as well as four asteroids – Vesta, Juno, Ceres, and Pallas – with each plaque containing their Greek symbols overlaying their images along with notes on the duration of their respective revolutions around the sun. In addition to these nine astronomical bodies there is also a tenth one noted on an outer plaque on an arm containing the name “Herschel,” presumably for William Herschel, the discoverer of Uranus (1781). A pasteboard equatorial ring contains both symbols of and figural representations of the constellations of the zodiac correlating to the months of the year.
As Elly Dekker and Peter van der Krogt note: “The most successful French entrepreneur in maps and globes was without a doubt Charles-François Delamarche (1740–1840) … Delamarche not only took over the shop owned by Jean Fortin but also the remaining part of the workshop of Robert de Vaugondy. He could rightly call himself…” the successor to Vaugondy.
Félix Delamarche, was the son of Charles François and took over his business. He is known for his Atlas De La Geographie Ancienne et moderne (1826). In this atlas an illustration of an armillary similar to the present example appears on the page titled “Tableau Analytique des Differens Systemes du Monde,” and so suggests a date for this item. Nevertheless, the armillary’s contents indicate the period between the discovery of Vesta in 1807 and the discovery of Neptune in 1846.
Refs.: Dekker and van der Krogt, Globes from the Western World (1993), p. 78; Rumsey, list no. 0231.004.
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