We enter a small shop on Jermyn Street, and we can’t leave …
Jones’s ‘New Portable Orrery’ Signed ‘Designed for the New Portable Orreries by W. Jones and made & sold by W. & S. Jones, 30 Holborn, London’. ‘A table of the principal affections of the Planets. January 1st 1794. Published as the Act directs by W & S Jones’. The base is supported on three wooden turned legs and mounted with Jones’s printed and hand coloured paper calendrical ring, with twelve fine illustrations of the Zodiacal, compass and degree scale and the Saturn and Jupiter Satellites, a lacquered brass structure comprising of the two planets Mercury and Venus and an earth globe with its moon. The mechanism is operated by means of a handle. It shows the position of the Moon and the Earth in relation to the sun, and the position of the Earth in the Zodiac. |
Trevor Philip & SonsA great place to stop in on if you’ve got a few extra hours in London is the little shop of Trevor Philip and Sons. It is physically located on Jermyn Street near the entrance to the Picadilly Arcade, but it is spiritually and historically much further back, and much further afield. From outside the interior glistens of brass, glass and metalwork but once inside you realize that everything is of another time. Brilliantly intricate orreries and planetariums fill the floors, sharing space with everything from periscopes to sundials to clocks. Maps, books and diagrams line the walls. Trevor Philip says they specialize in antique globes, instrumentation and scientific and exploration equipment, but in reality they seem to specialize in amazement and wonder. And toys. The items in the shop are almost all working, moving, operating pieces that were made to serve a specific and usually sturdy purpose decades ago. That they are now collectible and valuable antiques doesn’t keep the boy in you from wanting to turn this and pull that, peer through this or sneak under that.
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H: 46 cm |
The guys know our passions, and they know their stuff. Trevor Waterman founded the family run company that has been on Jermyn Street since 1986, and is also a founder of the Scientific Instrument Society. His son Saf Waterman is Managing Director and was on hand during our visit. They are members of the British Antiques Dealers Association, and have links with several international museums, and support many academic interests and projects with their unique knowledge and ability.
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A very rare Empire gilt bronze mounted mahogany orrery clock. The veneered base with main dial is suspended between four circular mahogany pillars with gilt bronze Doric capitals and bases surmounted by a circular antablature with a gilt bronze ring mounted with the days and names of the month and the four year cycle. The entablature supporting the orrery of four year duration consists of rotating spheres representing the sun, moon and earth. The precision movement strikes on the hour and half hours. H: 69 cm |
What is an Orrery?
An orrery is a mechanical model of the universe, or at least of certain bodies. It shows relative positions and movements of heavenly bodies by rotation and revolution. The mechanisms are similar to clockwork, and are often incorporated with clock mechanisms or timekeeping pieces. The name Orrery came from Charles Boyle, the fourth Earl of Orrery, for whom one of the earliest such pieces was made.
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This orrery is driven by a two-week going, hour and half-hour striking clock with an option for manual demonstration, and housed in a gilt and painted wooden case with three glazed observation panels. H: 45 cm |
What is a Tellurion?
A tellurion is a mechanical model meant to show specifically the movement of the earth on its axis and around the sun, and how such movement creates both day and night and the changing of seasons.
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What is an Armillary Sphere?
An armillary sphere is an old astronomical model, often skeletonized, used to display relationships along the principal celestial circles. Metal rings or hoops are used to represent such things as the equator, the arctic and Antarctic circles, the tropics and so on. It helped early estronomers in their quest to determine the positions of stars. Ptolemy, in his own description, used one with one sliding graduated circle inside another.
 A very rare aluminum and steel periscope by Carl Zeiss on original oak and steel stand. Circa 1960 Built by Carl Zeiss for observational purposes, magnification 10x50, angled prismatic lenses, fully adjustable to enable the observer to look at almost any angle. Complete with carrying case and other accessories. |