A Nuremberg renaissance travel instrument.
Of engraved, painted and gilt ivory, with gilt bronze mountings. A multifunctional instrument for determining ones bearings, comprising two folding plaques. The lid with a compass, the inner surface with an instrument to determine the height of the poles, a table with the lengths of the days and signs of the zodiac and a night clock. The interior of the base bears a compass and two apertures to plot the rising and setting of the sun. The underside of the base bears a perpetual calendar. In the original velvet-lined fruitwood case with engraved copper mountings. Dated 1607 and signed PAVLVS REINMAN beneath the compass. Cracks to the ivory, the gnomon lost, the glazing the compass needle replaced. Losses to the veneer of the case, the lid loose, in need of repair. 2 x 16.8 x 12.4 cm, case 5.3 x 19.3 x 15.3 cm.
Paulus Reinman, 1608.
Provenance
Collection of Kurt Brügelmann,archived here in 1938 by Dr. Hermann Schnitzler.
Henceforth in family ownership.
Literature
An almost identical instrument, also dated 1607, in the British Museum in London under registration no. MLA 1888,12-1.285. Another inscribed Paulus Reinman and dated 1602, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 03.21.24. Several similar instruments by this famous compass maker, all dated between 1584 and 1603 in the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford.