A Large And Rare Mughal Engraved Brass Celestial Globe

A Large And Rare Mughal Engraved Brass Celestial Globe

A large and rare Mughal engraved brass celestial globe, attributable to Diya al-Din ibn Muhammad or his workshop, Lahore, 17th century. With later stand of spherical form Cast as single hollow sphere, three rectangular plugs (the first two plugs now lost, there remain just the holes), engraved with astrological markings and symbols, including the figures of all the forty-eight Ptolemaic constellations and zodiac signs which are named, the stars represented small silver roundels, with a modern bespoke four-legged cradle

The present globe, although unsigned, is attributable to Diya al-Din Muhammad or to his workshop in Lahore. A fourth-generation member of the most distinguished family of Mughal instrument makers, Diya al-Din’s family ‘workshop’ was founded in the mid-sixteenth century by his great grandfather Ilah-Dad, the Court Astronomer to the Emperor Humayun. His grandfather, father and uncle, as well as his two cousins all continued in this family business until the end of the seventeenth century. This globe is a rare survivor of this tradition.