ANCIENT SCULPTURES
 

Italy, XX Century

Brass ship's compass with side candle lighting. Manufacturer's mark printed on the dial.

Italy, 1950s

Bakelite accordion 34 keys and 75 bass with leather strap. Metal manufacturer's mark on the front.

19th Century / 1801 - 1900

Planetarium consisting of a gilded brass base, equipped with seven brass arms, on which the wooden planets are grafted, accompanied by their satellites; the larger solar globe is in ivory. The planetarium can be placed in the first half of the nineteenth century, that is, before the discovery of Neptune (1846) and its identification as the eighth planet.

Italy, Early XX Century

Early 20th century brass telescope diopter. Alidade composed of a flat rod, called rule, at the ends of which two pinnulae rise hinged; equipped with metric scale, compass, spirit level and distance metric collimator telescope.

T. WALKER'S Patent HARPOON SHIP LOG A.2.

Mechanical harpoon towing log/"Harpoon towing log" model A2, made of brass and porcelain, without stabiliser, fitted with three dials on the porcelain panel, of which the first records miles up to 100, the second records units up to 10 miles, the third records quarter miles. The four rotor blades are stamped with the anchor motif and the initials T.W. The design details and features suggest a production date around 1880.

18th Century / 1701 - 1800

Brass alidade for a praetorian tablet, consisting of a flat rod, called a ruler, at the ends of which two pinnules with a pin for locking are hinged. Contained in an original leather and suede case on the inside.

Sextant with brass frame, vernier with adjustment screw, three colored filters for the fixed mirror and three for the mobile one, aiming telescope.

Scotland, Early XX Century

Barograph Wilson & Sharp Edinburgh.

"Canivet a Paris"

Level and square set with golden brass wire, signed “Canivet a Paris”. On the instrument there are also the inscriptions “6 p de France / Nelle Mesure”.

"Butterfield a Paris"

Leveller set square with plumb line, in gilded brass, signed “Butterfield a Paris”; there also is the inscription "pouces de Roy". Michael Butterfield (1635-1724) was an English watchmaker who moved to Paris around 1663, where he worked at the royal court and was appointed engineer by Louis XIV. He opened a shop of precision instruments, and specialized, in particular, in the production of sundials. Among his main customers is the Tsar Peter the Great, who also visited the workshop in 1717.

"Franciscu"

Gilded brass leveling square signed "Franciscu".

19th Century / 1801 - 1900

Telescope diopter made of brass, composed of a movable graduated ruler, small compass with wind rose on the base, distance collimator telescope, vertical graduated circle and spirit level placed on the top of the telescope.

19th Century / 1801 - 1900

Brass geodesy graphometer, signed "Stanley London", with compass whose bottom is engraved with a compass rose indicating the 4 cardinal points and a broken bubble level. It has an inverted double diopter, as a goal for the fixed reference point, in the lower part. Another movable diopter with reading nonius in the fixed goniometer, the latter having a scale from 0 to 180° and from 180° to 0, indicated from 10° to 10°, semi-circular shape. Contained in a walnut box.

Italy, Mid XX Century ca

Galloni Dental Technician Parallelometer.

V

Sextant with brass frame, vernier with adjusting screw and microscope for reading, three coloured filters for the fixed mirror, four for the mobile mirror. Marked "P. & G. Mattei Cardiff".

19th Century / 1801 - 1900

Sextant with brass frame, vernier with adjusting screw and microscope for reading, three coloured filters for the fixed mirror, four for the mobile mirror. Marked "P. & G. Mattei Cardiff".

Fuller's Spiral Slide Rule

Fuller's cylindrical slide rule. It consists of an outer wooden cylinder that slides up and down and rotates, covered with paper marked with a graduated spiral logarithmic scale; inside is a longer wooden cylinder, also covered with paper marked with decimal tables. A brass index is screwed to the top of the neck, a second, longer brass index is screwed to the mahogany base and marked with a scale. The outer sliding cylinder is marked near the top: “FULLERS SPIRAL SLIDE RULE”; at the bottom it's marked: “ENTD. STATS. HALL / STANLEY, Maker, LONDON". The upper part of the long brass index is engraved: 1791 (/) 1903, for which it can be assumed (as for another similar specimen, preserved at the National Museum of American History) that the first is the serial number, while the second the year of completion. George Fuller, professor of civil engineering at Queen's University in Belfast, Ireland, patented this instrument in 1878; the Stanley firm produced about 14,000 Fuller spiral slide rules in nearly a hundred years.

“F. W. Morgan Optician Manchester”

Brass microscope signed on de base "F.W. Morgan Optical Manchester".

"Baradelle a Paris"

Theodolite in gilded brass, with fixed and movable alidade central compass; signed on the underside "Baradelle a Paris". Baradelle was a French family of makers of scientific instruments; their production includes that of the father Jean-Louis-Jacques (active from 1752 to 1794) and his son Nicholas Eloi (active from 1774 to 1814), both signing indiscriminately with the sole surname. There is the painted and gilded wooden base with phytomorphic motifs as well. A similar theodolite belongs to the English collections of the Science Museum Group.

19th Century / 1801 - 1900, 18th Century / 1701 - 1800

Gilded brass monocular with extensible bosy; the end is enamelled and decorated with gilded phitomorphic gyrals.