Accession No

6838

Brief Description

astrolabe, fake

Origin

Maker

Class

astronomy

Earliest Date

Latest Date

Inscription Date

Material

metal (brass)

Dimensions

115mm (width), 175mm (depth), 25mm (height)

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Tesseract July 2025. Purchased at auction in the UK by a private individual c. 1995.

Inscription

Description Notes

Astrolabe, fake.

Brass astrolabe made up of a mater and rete. The mater is engraved around the limb with a labelled degree scale. The top of the mater ends in a decorative extension to the circular body of the astrolabe, which attaches to a double loop. The mater is double-sided and engraved on its obverse side. The rete has star pointers for 26 stars, and is attached to the mater by way of a screw through the centre of the object.

At the time of accessioning, the astrolabe has no further plates, no rule and no alidade. The screw is also too stiff to move, and therefore the object cannot be detached into its various parts.

References

Events