$21,150
Rare Bronze Art-Nouveau Porter Garden Telescope, No. 53, the 6-inch dia. mirror in heart of bronze lotus leaves, with declination circle on the underside callibrated by individual degrees 60-0-70 , and declination clamp formed as a petal, pivoting in hour ring divided in ten minute intervals IX - 0 - IX , a slender bronze leaf rising from the lotus bowl to support pin-gnomon, prism and eyepiece on tension-sprung adjustment, supported on plate by three leaves concealing wheel adjustment for setting the telescope to latitudes from 35 - 50 °, the bedplate with names Kepler, Newton and Galileo cast in the perimeter, and cast-iron pedestal to spreading flower-form base, ht. level approx. 62 in., (mirror, prism and some other replacement parts). Provenance: Telescope No. 53 is listed as having been acquired by Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts from the Clark estate. Note: Designed by Russell Porter (1871 - 1949), artist, arctic explorer, engineer and pioneer of amateur astronomy in America. The influence and his work can be seen in places divserse as the Smithsonian Institute and the 200-inch Hale Telescope on Mt. Palomar in California. Porter's goal was to create an instrument that would be ornamental and practical in equal degrees, capapble of surrounding both a celestial or a garden landscape. Beginning in c. 1923, the Porter Garden Telescopes were produced by the Jones and Lamson Machine Company of Vermont. They were originally supplied with a compendium of accesso
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2007-03-24
