POCKET PLANETARIUM IN CELESTIAL GLOBE BY JOHN NEWTON, LONDON, CA 1830

Central gilt-brass sun, surrounded by planets Mercury, Venus, Earth & Moon, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus in ivory, all mounted onto wires rotating around the sun. Housed in a 3-inch fishskin covered wood pocket globe case, with 2 brass hook-and-eye clasps, interior lined with 12 hand-colored engraved celestial gores depicting the Northern and Southern hemispheres, and with the allegorical representations of the signs of the zodiac, all in Latin. Signed "Newton's Improved Pocket Celestial Globe."

Alain Brieux, 1964; Skinner, May 2005, lot 1563

A VERY RARE POCKET PLANETARIUM BY ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT GLOBE MAKING FIRMS IN ENGLAND IN THE 19TH CENTURY. We can only find one other example of this instrument, located at Snowshill Manor and Garden, in Gloucestershire, as part of the National Trust. "The Newton family were one of the most important globe making firms in England in the early 19th century. The founder, John Newton (1759-1844) was apprenticed to Thomas Bateman (fl. 1754-1781), who in turn, had been a pupil of Nathaniel Hill..."(Globes and the Mechanical Universe, p. 59)