Jun 06, 2019 - Sale 2512

Sale 2512 - Lot 35

Price Realized: $ 15,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
CARTE, JOHN. The Frontispiece of the Cosmographical Clock; Representing the Phoenomena on Thursday December 14, 1699. Broadside elaborately decorated with two hand-colored engraved polar-projected world maps. 20 1/4x14 inches sheet size, narrow margins; light mat stain at edges, small unobtrusive repair at lower margin. London, circa 1699

Additional Details

Ornate face of the "Cosmographical Clock" invented by English watchmaker John Carte. The main dial-plate consists of a 24-hour time clock with zodiac rings and a map showing the world on a northern polar projection; four additional dialed temporal diagrams are at each corner with eagles and vines decorating the spandrels; the lower register contains a smaller world map on a southern projection surmounted by cherubs and is flanked by two columns of letterpress description. Two examples of a "Cosmographical Clock" broadside describing the events of December 3rd, 1700 are known (Yale University and the British Museum), but no example of this 1699 date has been traced. Shirley 614 (citing the 1700 example).