AN ENGRAVED BRASS ASTROLABE
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Safavid Iran, dated 1125 AH (1713 AD), signed by the maker Amin Mohammad Shams al-Din

Of typical circular shape, comprising five plates and an openwork rete designed as a bundle of scrolling, intertwined vegetal trellis with an ecliptic ring at the top, the rule and mater densely engraved, the womb with six decreasing concentric bands of Arabic inscriptions on the interior, the circular medallion in the centre marked with the date '1125' (1713 AD) and signed by the maker Amin Mohammad Shams al-Din, another six bands occupying half hemisphere on the back, the cusp once fitted with a qibla pointer, now missing, engraved with rosettes on the front and an arabesque composition with a lotus flower flanked by split palmette scrolls on the back, with an old Sotheby's London tag reading Ottoman engraved brass astrolabe, Turkey, and extra notes in pen, 13cm diam. and 16.5cm long.