Arts of the Islamic World & India including Fine Rugs and Carpets
Arts of the Islamic World & India including Fine Rugs and Carpets
A PLANOSPHERIC BRASS ASTROLABE, SIGNED BY HAJJI 'ALI, PERSIA, LATE 18TH CENTURY
This lot has been withdrawn
Lot Details
Description
A PLANOSPHERIC BRASS ASTROLABE, SIGNED BY HAJJI 'ALI, PERSIA, LATE 18TH CENTURY
cast brass, mater cast in one piece with throne, engraved front and back with central leaf flanked by trefoil flowers, inside of mater engraved with detailed gazetteer with the latitudes, longitudes and declinations of over thirty localities in Persia, also cited in outer ring: Mecca, Medina and Baghdad, the reverse engraved with solar quadrant to the right and trigonometric grid to the left, double shadow square with astronomical information and maker’s name, rete with pointers for twenty-six named stars, hook to top, with four latitude plates which correspond to: 38° - 37°, 37° - 36°, 34° - 32°, and 30° - 29°
12.5cm. height; 9.1cm. diam.
Ex-private collection, UK.
This small, portable astrolabe is typical of Hajji 'Ali's production. It is thought that he worked in Isfahan about 150 years after the instrument school there had reached its zenith, but we have no information about the milieu in which he himself worked. What is remarkable is that his instruments display the same elegance and precision as the smaller instruments of the earlier Isfahan school. Although close to twenty astrolabes are known from his hand, all virtually identical to this one, nine are numbered, including one numbered '26', proving that at least that many must have been made.
Other examples closest to this astrolabe are in the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, each dated 1210 AH/1795 AD and 1212 AH/1797 AD. For a longer note on the astrolabes of Hajji 'Ali, written by Professor David King, see Sotheby's, Arts of the Islamic World, 7 October 2009, lot 100. A further Hajji 'Ali astrolabe was sold in these rooms, 9 April 2008, lot 208.
For further bibliographic information, see Mayer 1946, p.39; King 1999, pp.149-186 (on the gazetteers found on late Iranian astrolabes); King 2005, XIIIa (on astrolabes as historical sources).