AN ENGRAVED BRASS ISLAMIC CELESTIAL GLOBE
Possibly Iran or Northern India, 18th - 19th century

Of typical spherical shape, pierced on either end of the main axis, engraved with constellations represented by mythical beasts and figures, many identified by small-sized, epigraphic inscriptions in a crude and jagged script, with graduated equatorial and ecliptic, inscribed with the date 1191 AH (1777 - 1778 AD), the axis through the celestial poles and on the horizontal plane, the cast horizon ring with crude graduations, raised on four baluster-shaped tapering columns with cruciform base, 14.5cm high.

The dating of this kind of celestial globes with crude epigraphic inscriptions and folkish figures proves to be quite challenging and is still a matter of debate. A very similar example to ours in the collection of the Linden Museum in Stuttgart is attributed to 18th-century Mughal India. However, an almost identical example with the same cruciform base sold at Christie's London, 6 April 2011, lot 83 has been attributed to the late 19th century.