T H E A RT I F I C E R ' S E Y E : A

DISCUSSION OF THE ROLE OF

A RT I S T I C D E S I G N A N D
A RT I S A N A L F L A I R I N T H E
DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF
ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS
M A D E I N B R I TA I N B E T W E E N
1700-1800.
INTRODUCTION

At the dawn of the eighteenth century, there was considerable and

rapid change within natural philosophy and almost all forms of natural
enquiry.1 A new mechanical philosophy had emerged over the course
of the seventeenth century, and was well established in Britain, as well
as in much of Western Europe by 1700.2 The development of
institutions such as the Royal Society and Gresham College in England
and LAcademie des Sciences in Paris towards the end of the
seventeenth century highlighted a growing concern with natural
enquiry and interrogation of the natural world.3 Mathematics was
1 Bennett, Jim. The Mechanics Philosophy and the Mechanical Philosophy History of
Science, No. 24, (1986): 1-28; and also Stewart, Larry. Other Centres of Calculation,
or, Where the Royal Society Didnt Count: Commerce, Coffee-Houses and Natural
Philosophy in Early Modern London The British Journal for the History of Science 32,
No. 2, (June 1999): 133-153, pp 133-4; and also Stewart, Larry. Science,
Instruments, and Guilds in Early-Modern Britain Early Science and Medicine 10, No. 3
(2005): 392-410, pp 392-3.
2 Bennett, The Mechanics Philosophy, 1-2; and also Zilsel, Edgar. The Origins of
William Gilberts Scientific Method Journal of the History of Ideas 2, No. 1, (January
1941): 1-32, pp. 26; and also Stewart, Other Centres, 133-4; and also Stewart,
Science, 392-3, 410; and also Hooper-Greenhill, E. Museums and the Shaping of
Knowledge, (London, Routledge, 1992), pp. 78-166.
3 Bennett, The Mechanics Philosophy, 7-8, 11; and also Sorrenson, Richard. George
Graham, Visible Technician The British Journal for the History of Science 32, No. 2,
(June 1999):203-221, pp. 210; and also Stewart, Other Centres, 134-5; and also
Daston, Lorraine and Park, Katherine. Wonders and the Order of Nature, (Cambridge,
MIT Press, 1998): pp. 215-254.
1

increasingly perceived as vital to understanding the natural world.4

One of the principle components and vectors of these changes in
natural enquiry and knowledge production was instruments.5 There
was an increasingly large market in the eighteenth century for
instruments of all kinds, including those connected directly or related
to astronomy.6
Astronomy has existed in one form or another, for millennia. Over four
and a half thousand years ago Stonehenge in England was used as an
astronomical instrument.7 By the turn of the eighteenth century
however the remit of Astronomy had considerably diversified and a
significant aspect of natural philosophical enquiry concerned
developing an understanding of the cosmos, sun, moon, and stars.8 As
such, many different areas of natural philosophical investigation, and
natural enquiry, touched upon and increasingly collaborated with
astronomy in the eighteenth century.9 Mathematics, surveying and
navigation all both informed astronomical study and were informed by
it, indeed at the time, astronomy was for many a mathematical
pursuit, as it relied so heavily on the use of instruments.10
Mathematics and astronomy were deeply intertwined, the observation
of astronomical phenomena being quantified, tabulated and even
4 Bennett, The Mechanics Philosophy, 2-4; and also Johnston, Stephen.
Mathematical Practitioners and Instruments in Elizabethan England Annals of
Science 48, (1991): 319-344, pp. 319-20.
5 Stewart, Other Centres, 134-40; and also Stewart, Science, 392-3, 404-7; and also
Bennett, Jim. Presidential Address: Knowing and Doing in the Sixteenth Century:
What Were Instruments For? The British Journal for the History of Science 36, No. 2
(2003): 129-50, pp. 129-33; and also Smith, R. The Norton History of the Human
Sciences, (London, Norton, 1997): 501-29, pp. 501-6.
6 Stewart, Other Centres, 133-4, 7-9, 152-3; and also Stewart, Science, 393-4, 400,
408-9, 412; and also Grieg, H. and Riello, G. Eighteenth-Century Interiors
Redesigning the Georgian: Introduction Journal of Design History 20, No. 4
(September 2007): 273-290, pp 273.
7 North, John. Stonehenge: A new Interpretation of Prehistoric Man and the Cosmos
(London, Free Press, 1996), pp. 434-498.
8 Stewart, Other Centres, 133, 139, 147-8; and also Stewart, Science, 393, 401; and
also Sorrenson, 210.
9 Ibid, 210; and also Stewart, Other Centres, 137, 139-41, 144-5, ; and also Stewart,
Science, 393, 405.
10 Stewart, Other Centres, 137, 140; and also Sorrenson, 210.
2

predicted with the assistance of mathematical calculation.11 The rise

during the seventeenth century of the mechanical philosophy
furthered this connection, as the empirical study of a mechanical
cosmos, particularly of astronomical time, relied heavily on
mathematics and mathematically calibrated instrumentation, such as
sectors, drawing instruments, compasses, and rulers.12 Astronomy
meanwhile provided constant values with which mathematics could
further inquiry into the natural world, such as the time taken for the
earth to complete a rotation on its axis or around the sun (still a notentirely uncontentious supposition).13
Surveying and astronomy were increasingly linked during this period.
As surveying instruments (such as sextants and quadrants among
others) became more practical, the use of these in mapping and
studying astronomical phenomena became more common. Similarly
astronomical observations were able to provide datum points when
surveying.14
Navigation, an increasingly important skill still between an art and a
professionalised discipline, was similarly invested in astronomy. The
determination of both latitude and longitude on land and sea was
dependent on astronomical observations, such as the observation of
the eclipses of Jupiters satellites to determine longitude on land, or
11 Kochiras, Hylarie. The Mechanical Philosophy and Newtons Mechanical Force.
Philosophy of Science 80, No. 4 (October 2013): 557-578, pp. 564; and also Stewart,
Other Centres, 137.
12 Kochiras, 560-3; and also Bennett, The Mechanics Philosophy, 1-3; and also
Malet, Antoni, Early Conceptualizations of the Telescope as an Optical Instrument,
Early Science and Medicine 10 No. 2 (2005): 23762; pp. 237-9.
13 Bennett, Jim. Sphere No. 3: Armillary and Orrery by John Rowley, Museum of the
History of Science <http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/about/sphaera/sphaera-issue-no3/sphere-no-3-armillary-and-orrery-by-john-rowley/> [accessed 28 May 2014]; and
also Wray, Brad. Selection and Predictive Success. Erkenntnis 72, No. 3 (May
2010): 365-377, pp. 370; and also Crowther, Kathleen M., and Peter Barker, Training
the Intelligent Eye: Understanding Illustrations in Early Modern Astronomy Texts,
Isis, 104/3 (2013): 42970, pp. 469.
14 Kochiras, 560-3; and also Sturmy, Samuel, The Mariners Magazine: Stord with
the Following Mathematical Arts: The Rudiments of Navigation and Geometry ... Also
the Penalties and Forfeitures Relating to the Customs, and to Navigation. With Tables
of Logarithms, Sines and Tangents ..., The fourth edition with useful additions.
(London, 1700).
3

the observation of the relative position of the moon to other stellar

bodies to determine longitude at sea.15 Navigational instruments, such
as sextants, astronomical rings, and compasses could all be used in
astronomical investigation. Navigational astronomy was at the
forefront of astronomical research at the time, and the growing need
for more accurate oceanic navigation throughout Europe and the wider
world helped drive both navigation and astronomy forward, along with
the instruments they used.16 Astronomy therefore influenced and was
influenced by many other disciplines and areas of natural philosophy
and natural enquiry.
THE ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENT

The breadth and scope of astronomical enquiry meant that there was
an equally substantial body of instruments used for astronomical
investigation during the eighteenth century, many of them differing
intended uses and origins. Even the telescope, often regarded as the
most significant astronomical instrument to exist, had origins outside
of astronomy.17 The telescope was a spotting instrument, not intended
to be pointed to the heavens. Another well known astronomical
instrument, the astrolabe, had a multitude of uses beyond astronomy,
though by the eighteenth century it was falling out of popular use and
very few astrolabes were made in Britain beyond the seventeenth

15 Bennett, Jim. The Trials and Travels of Mr. Harrisons Timekeeper. In Marie Nolle
Bourguet, Christian Licoppe, and H. Otto Sibum (eds.) Instruments, Travel and
Science: Itineraries of Precision from the Seventeenth to the Tewentieth Century.
(London, Routledge, 2002): 79-95, pp. 76-8; and also Barrett, K. Explaining
themselves: The Barrington papers, the Board of Longitude, and the fate of John
Harrison Notes and Records of the Royal Society 65, (January, 2011): 145-162, pp.
150.
16 Anderson, Matthew Smith. Europe in the Eighteenth Century: 1713-1783.
(Longmans, Green, 1961): 237-9, 242; and also Fernie, J. Donald. Marginalia: The
Harrison-Maskelyne Affair. American Scientist 91, No. 5 (September-October 2003):
403-6, pp. 403.
17 Van Helden, A. The Invention of the Telescope. Transactions of the American
Philosophical Society 67, No. 4 (1977): 1-67, pp. 5.
4

century.18 This therefore begs the question, what constitutes an

astronomical instrument?
If astronomical instruments were to mean instruments devised and
intended solely for the investigation of astronomical phenomena, there
would be very few in the eighteenth century indeed. The orrery could
perhaps fall into such a restrictive category, the first nominative orrery
being developed in 1704 by renowned mathematical instrument maker
John Rowley (though there appears to be evidence that the
Antikythera Mechanism may have been a form of orrery as well, some
1800 years previously).19 However, to pretend that the orrery was the
only form of astronomical instrument in use in the eighteenth century
would obfuscate a vast portion of astronomical discovery and history.
Astronomical instruments therefore can be taken to simply mean
portable instruments which were used for the study of celestial bodies
which, as shown above, includes instruments from mathematics,
surveying, and navigation among others.

THE ARTISAN

Having defined the astronomical instrument, it is important now to

define the artisan. In eighteenth century Britain there were a vast
range of practical manufacturing trades, many of which were
represented or managed by guilds.20 Some instrument makers worked
alone to design and manufacture their instruments, others were part
of a large group of people with individual skills who collaborated to
18 Zuidervaart, H. J. The true inventor of the telescope. A survey of 400 years of
debate. Albert Van Helden, Sven Dupr, Rob van Gent, Huib Zuidervaart (eds.) The
Origins of the Telescope. (Middelburg, Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences,
2009): pp. 9-14; and also Van Helden, pp. 6-7; and also Latham, Marcia, The
Astrolabe, The American Mathematical Monthly, 24/4 (1917), 16268, pp. 162, 6-7.
19 Marchant, Jo, In Search of Lost Time, Nature, 444/7119 (2006), 53438; and also
Calvert, Henry Reginald. Astronomy: globes, orreries & other models (London,
H.M.S.O, 1967); and also Bennett, Sphere No. 3.
20 Stewart, Science, 394, 396, 407; and also Hering, D. Art in Clockmaking and
Watchmaking The Scientific Monthly 40, No. 6 (June 1935):519-534, pp. 529.
5

produce and work different parts of an instrument.21 People from both

groups can be considered artisans in this context, as they were all
responsible for the design and manufacture of these instruments to
varying degrees. Their role in the development of astronomy in
eighteenth century Britain should be clear, the role of artistic design
and artisanal flair perhaps a little less so.
AESTHETIC IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY BRITISH ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS

Within the category of instruments principally affiliated with and

related to the study of astronomy, three main instrument types will be
considered: armillary spheres, telescopes and orreries.
The armillary sphere was still in use in the eighteenth century.
Traditionally they featured a model earth in the centre of a rotating
sphere upon which was a map of the stars and planets. Their
traditional embodiment of the Ptolemaic celestial model (the cosmos
revolving around the earth) led to may armillaries losing their value as
astronomical instruments as the Copernican model (the earth
revolving around the sun) became increasingly pervasive in the
eighteenth century. This meant that artisans needed to make
innovations to their design in order to keep armillaries relevant beyond
curiosities, and maintain the thriving instrument market in Britain
(especially London) at the time.22 A significant innovation in the design
of armillary spheres was the inclusion within them of small models of
the solar system, seen in work by several British makers of the time
( for example fig 1 & 2), around which the rotation of the cosmos
became a function of practicality rather than philosophical truth. This
allowed armillary spheres to remain philosophically current whilst
preserving their usefulness for astronomical study.

21 Stewart, Science, 407-9; and also McKendrick, N. Josiah Wedgwood and Factory
Discipline The Historical Journal 4, No. 1 (1961): 30-55, pp. 33-6.
22 Ibid, 393-4, 401,404-9; and also Stewart, Other Centres, 140, 146-8, 150.
6

As can be seen in figures 1 and 2, these new kinds of armillary spheres

were of intricate construction, but had a minimalist approach to
ornament. The engraving work on both armillaries, and on many
others, is clear and easily read, with very little by way of ostentation or
ornament to distract from the graduations. The artisans who produced
these two armillaries are different also. Glynne was an apprentice of
Henry Wynne (himself an apprentice of Greatorex) and trained as a
mathematical instrument maker, and never achieved the great
reputation and regard that Rowley did.23 Rowley was, on the other
hand, extremely successful as a mathematical instrument maker,
though he had trained as an engraver.24 Both of them however
generally produced instruments with an emphasis on ease of
comprehension, cleanliness and utility.
This cleanliness can also be seen in other British astronomical
instruments of the time, telescopes and orreries were both often
plainly decorated too, as can be seen in figures 3 and 4. Were the
trend towards simplicity motivated mainly by utility, the telescope
could reasonably be expected to more often bear ornamentation on its
outer casing, as the outward appearance would not affect the inner
working or its use in any way. However, this can be seen to not be the
case. They were often wrapped in a dyed skin,
Many
forBritish
example
telescopes
rayskin of
or
period
not was
decorated
at all, their
left
entirelyas for the
vellum,were
but this
in all likelihood
as casings
much
thefor
comfort
plain.
sake of appearance.

23 Davis, J. History St. Hughs College, <http://www.st-hughs.ox.ac.uk/aboutsthughs/gardens/sundial/history> [Accessed 29 May 2014]; and also Warner,
Deborah. Terrestrial Magnetism: For the Glory of God and the Benefit of Mankind
Osiris 2, Vol. 9, (1994): 66-84, pp. 70; and also Calvert, H. R. Scientific Trade Cards in
the Science Museum Collection (London, H.M.S.O., 1971), p.23; and also Millburn, J.
Benjamin Martin and the Development of the Orrery The British Journal for the
History of Science 6, No. 4 (Dec 1973): 378-399, pp. 384.
24 Stewart, Science, 401,403; and also Bennett, Sphere No. 3.
7

fig. 1: Armillary sphere and orrery by John Rowley, London, c. 1700. By

permission of the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford.

fig. 2: Armillary orrery, by Richard Glynne, London, c. 1710-30. By permission of

the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford.
fig. 3: Refracting telescope, by Samuel Scatliff, London, c. 1740. By permission of
the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford.
9

Orreries were new instruments in the eighteenth century, one of the

first being made by John Rowley for the fourth Earl of Orrery (hence
the instruments common name, it is more properly known as a
tellurium) in 1712.25 Similarly, it could be expected that orreries would
permit considerable scope for ornament and ostentation, and while
this is the case of a few (for instance in fig. 5) many orreries were plain
and utilitarian in aesthetic and design.
Many of the astronomical instruments made in Britain during the
eighteenth century bore a plain, clean aesthetic, even when one was
not needed. The reasons for this are not immediately clear. There are
some astronomical instruments with ornamentation made in Britain
during this time (such as in fig. 5), but those that do are generally both
costly and destined for the aristocracy.

25 Bennett, Sphere No. 3; and also Anon. Original Orrery Planetary Model by John
Rowley, 1712-1713, 2007
<http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/astronomy/1952-73.aspx> [accessed 29
May 2014]; and also Millburn, 382-3, 95.

10

fig. 4: Orrery, by Thomas Tompion and George Graham,

London, c.1710. By permission of the Museum of the
History of Science, University of Oxford.

Natural philosophical investigation, and therefore astronomical

instruments,
fashionable
during 1712-13.
the eighteenth
fig. 5. Original was
orreryextremely
planetary model,
by John Rowley,
By permission of
the Science Museum, London, and the Science & Society Picture Library.

century, and the popular market for instruments existed in primarily

11

two strata.26 The rise in off the shelf instruments meant that most
people interested in acquiring one, either a natural philosophical
practitioner (itself an incredibly broad label) or someone interested in
acquiring one for its fashionable status (there is also nothing to say
that these two groups did not overlap), would acquire one ready made
from the artisans shop. These astronomical instruments typically had
a clean, simple aesthetic and an inornate design. However, sufficiently
moneyed individuals (overwhelmingly, but not exclusively, of the
aristocracy at this time) would more often commission an artisan to
construct an instrument for them, and these luxury instruments would
more frequently (but not always) be ornamented and more
ostentatious than the norm.27 Ostentation in astronomically designs
instruments was clearly not the norm however, and this is similarly the
case for other kinds of instruments as well.

AESTHETIC IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY MATHEMATICAL INSTRUMENTS

Whilst all of the instruments discussed above have been labelled as

mathematical instruments in past literature, there is also scope here
for mathematical instruments not typically connected with the study of
celestial bodies, but which nevertheless played a part in astronomical
practice.28 Chief among which were sectors and drawing instruments
such as trammels and compasses. Sectors, among many countless
uses, could be used for sighting and finding the elevation of
astronomical phenomena (in particular Grahams zenith sector, in
26 Bennett, The Mechanics Philosophy, 1-3; and also Stewart, Science, 405, 408-9;
and also Stewart, Other Centres, 136, 139, 147; and also Stewart, Larry. A Meaning
for Machines: Modernity, Utility and the Eighteenth-Century British Public The
Journal of Modern History 70, No. 2 (June 1998): 259-294, pp. 265.
27 Stewart, Science, 403; and also Millburn, 395; and also Grieg and Riello, 280; and
also Iliffe, Rob. Material Doubts: Hooke, Artisan Culture and the Exchange of
Information in 1670s London The British Journal for the History of Science 28, No. 3
(September 1995): 285-318, pp. 303; and also Hill, K. Junglers or Schollers?:
Negotiating the Role of a Mathematical Practitioner The British Journal for the
History of Science 31, No. 3 (September 1998): 253-274, pp. 273-4.
28 Van Helden, 30; and also Stewart, Science, 396-7; and also Johnston, 331; and
also Crowther and Barker, 452-3.
12

essence a telescope mounted to a large mathematical sector, which

was used to discover nutation of the earths axis, the time taken for
the suns light to reach the earth, and other astronomical
phenomena29), as well as the calibration of astronomical sighting
equipment such as telescopes.30 Drawing instruments could be used
for the production of scale drawings and maps of the night sky,
especially the geometric ellipses and circles observed in the apparent
movement of the celestial sphere. These drawings would prove
essential in the astronomical textbooks and numerous paper
instruments circulating at the time.31 For the most part these
instruments exhibited the same aesthetic as many astronomical
instruments, clean,plain and utilitarian (fig. 6 and 8), though again
there is clearly the capacity for artistic flair for curiosity pieces and
commissioned luxury items (for instance in fig. 7).

fig. 6: Pocket set of drawing instruments, England, 18th century. By permission of

the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford.

29 Anon. Zenith Sector, National Maritime Museum

<http://prints.rmg.co.uk/art/510205/Zenith_sector> [accessed 29 May 2014]; and
also Sorrenson, 206-8, 214.
30 Ibid, 206, 216.
31 Bennett, Knowing and Doing, 140-1; and also Crowther, K and Barker, 444-70.
13

Common sets of drawing instruments sold in Britain during the

eighteenth century were as plain and utilitarian as the bulk of the
astronomical instruments being made and sold at the same time. The
containing case bears the only ornamentation, a dyed shagreen very
common on cases and containers of instruments at the time (similar
wrapping can be found on some telescope casings from the era).

14

fig. 7: Elliptical compasses, probably English, c. 1800. By permission of the

Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford.

15

It remains the case however that some mathematical instruments can

be designed with deliberate ornament, so the capacity for such design
was clearly available to eighteenth century British artisans. However,
like most astronomical instruments, the aesthetic of mathematical
instruments remained plain and utilitarian, in contrast to the generally
more ornate and classical artistic styles prevalent at the time.32

fig. 8: Sector, by Edmund Culpeper, London, c. 1700. By permission of the

Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford.
AESTHETIC IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY BRITISH SURVEYING AND
NAVIGATIONAL INSTRUMENTS

Instruments for surveying and navigating were also used in

astronomical natural enquiry during the eighteenth century.33 In
addition many instruments used in navigation were also used in
surveying, and vice versa. Mariners quadrants could be used as
32 Umbach, Maiken. Classicism, Enlightenment and the Other: thoughts on
decoding eighteenth-century visual culture Art History 25, No. 3 (June 2002): 31940, pp. 325-7; and also Guyatt, Mary. The Wedgwood Slave Medallion: Values in
Eighteenth-Century Design Journal of Design History 13, No. 2 (2000): 93-105, pp.
93-4; and also Crowther and Barker, 434-6.
33 Saito, F. History of Mathematics and History of Science: Some remarks
concerning contextual framework Educ. Matem. Pesq 14, No. 3 (2012): 363-385, pp.
378; and also Iliffe, 290-1; and also Stewart, Science, 408; and also Malet, 237-8.
16

surveying quadrants, and indeed there were several hybrid devices

developed in London and elsewhere during the eighteenth century
that straddled these disciplines. An example of which is the
astronomical ring, which could be used as an astronomical instrument,
a navigational aid, and a surveying tool (fig. 9).34

fig. 9: Astronomical Ring Dial with Quadrant, by Gilbert and

Gilkerson, London, c. 1800. By permission of the Museum of the
History
Science,
University
Oxford.
34 Gunther,
R. T.ofThe
Astrolabes
of theofWorld,
(Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1932), Vol. II, pp. 326-327; and also Crowther and Barker, 442.

17

The overwhelming majority of surveying and navigational instruments

have a very clean, minimal aesthetic, with an attention on utilitarian
design and ease of understanding and use (see figs 9 and 10). Very
few examples from eighteenth-century Britain have any form of
ornamentation.

fig. 10: Sextant, by Dollond, London, c. 1760. By permission of the Museum of the
History of Science, University of Oxford.

THE ROLE OF ARTISTIC DESIGN AND ARTISANAL FLAIR

Traditional notions of artistic design and flair therefore do not seem to

apply to many of the instruments used in astronomical practice during
the eighteenth century. However, the establishment of a clean
aesthetic with minimal ornamentation is in and of itself a significant
statement in artistic design, especially when juxtaposed with the
broader artistic tendencies of eighteenth century Britain. Throughout

18

the eighteenth century ornament and intricacy of design were

increasingly fashionable in material design.35
The clean, utilitarian aesthetic of the majority of these instruments can
therefore be seen as a fresh, discrete aesthetic against the context of
eighteenth century Britain. However, as can be seen in several
examples, astronomical instruments and others could be ornamented
and artistic (see figures 5 and 7), and in other areas, such as
watchmaking, the use of ornament was far more prevalent.36
There was clearly a capacity for ostentation in the design of
astronomical instruments that was not being exploited in the majority
of the objects that artisans were producing in eighteenth century
Britain. The discussion of telescopes above has already highlighted
that this cleanliness was not solely a product of necessity, even
instruments which could safely bear ornament without interfering with
their functionality or use seldom did. What then is the cause of this
aesthetic?
At first glance growing international competition may be the answer,
as European imperial powers began to establish themselves and
national identities matured.37 The growing market for instruments
could also have led to increasing attempts by artisans in the leading
European centres of production; London, Paris, Nuremberg and so on,
to differentiate themselves.38 However, examination of contemporary
instruments from mainland Europe illustrates that there was a similar
lack of ornamentation in many of the devices built there (figures 11
and 12). There may however be a case for more ornamentation being
35 Umbach, Maiken. Classicism, Enlightenment and the Other: thoughts on
decoding eighteenth-century visual culture Art History 25, No. 3 (June 2002):319-40,
pp. 325-7; and also Guyatt, Mary. The Wedgwood Slave Medallion: Values in
Eighteenth-Century Design Journal of Design History 13, No. 2 (2000): 93-105, pp.
93-4; and also Crowther and Barker, 434-6; and also Grieg and Riello, 274-5.
36 Hering, 521-3, 533-4.
37 Stewart, Other Centres, 133; and also Fernie, 404; and also Guyatt, 95; and also
Warner, 69-70.
38 Bennett, J. Nuremberg Places, <https://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/epact/place.php?
PlaceName=Nuremberg> [Accessed 29 May 2014].
19

found in European instrument cases and stands. This indicates that the
cause for the simple, instrumental aesthetic wasnt international
competition or discrimination.
An alternative supposition may be that the divide is between readymade and luxury goods. Again this is understandable, as the growth of
the instrument market throughout Europe led to new quantities and
techniques of production, including a move toward factory techniques,
divided labour, and off the shelf commerce.39 However again
examination of some luxury astronomical instruments of the time (for
examples figures 1 and 4) shows that luxury instruments could very
often be similarly plain and clean in their design and aesthetic.

39 Stewart, Science, 408-9; and also Stewart, Other Centres, 135-6; and also
Stewart, A Meaning for Machines, 265.
20

fig. 11: Refracting telescope, by Jan van den Bildt, Holland, C. 1750. With kind
permission of Gjalt Kemp.

The impetus behind the artisanal drive for cleanliness and simplicity
may be rather more deeply rooted in the cultural context of the time.
The eighteenth century, and more broadly the enlightenment, saw
increasing growths of interest and of knowledge within the broad
canvas of natural philosophy.40

40 Ibid, 133-6, 139-40; and also Stewart, Science, 392-3; and also Kochiras, 563.
21

fig. 12: Astronomical Clock and Armillary Sphere, Antide Janvier, Paris, 1798. By
permission of the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford.

22

Increasingly empiricism and investigation were the keys to

understanding the universe, and this was embodied in the use of
instruments. At the same time, the artistic and stylistic fashions of
eighteenth-century Europe were increasingly allegorical, style and
form of an object had to evoke something of its meaning and
purpose.41 In this way, the role of the clean, utilitarian artistic design of
instruments that established itself during the eighteenth century
(though with origins in the seventeenth) was twofold. It was not only
an attempt by artisans and their patrons to demarcate and distinguish
their instruments, and the philosophy they embodied, from the
curiosities and wonders of toymen and cabinets at the time.42 But it
was also an allegory for the new natural philosophical episteme; the
production and discrimination of facts and the investigation of
phenomena through enhancement of the human senses.43
Artisanal flair is not to be found in flourishes of ornate metalwork or
intricate, original engravings. The way that artisans of the time, in
eighteenth century Britain and elsewhere, distinguished themselves
was through innovation of design.44 Artisanal flair was in ingenuity,
objects like the astronomical ring (fig. 9) and the Copernican armillary
sphere (fig. 1) were not ostentatious or gaudily ornamented to amaze
the prospective customer, they were innovative. Clients and patrons
were impressed by the degree of thought put into the utility and
practicality of an artisans work. The flair of the artisan therefore can
41 Umbach, 328, 331; and also Hering, 524.
42 MacGregor, A. The Cabinet of Curiosities in 17th Century Britain O. Impey and A.
MacGRegor (eds.) The Origins of Museums: The Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteenthand-Seventeenth-Century Europe, (Oxford, 1985): 207-8; and also Dennis, F. Some
Jeweled Toys of Georgian London The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 5, No. 6
(February 1947): 164-168, pp. 164-5.
43 Hooper-Greenhill, 78-83; and also Olmi, G. Science Honour Metaphor: Italian
cabinets of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries O. Impey and A. MacGregor
(eds.), The Origins of Museums: The Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteenth-andSeventeenth-Century Europe, (Oxford, 1985): pp. 1-3; and also Foucault. M. The
Order of Things, (London, Routledge, 2002).
44 Stewart, Science, 394, 396, 401; and also Stewart, Other Centres, 139-40; and
also Styles, John, Product Innovation in Early Modern London, Past & Present, No.
168, (August 2000): 12469, pp. 126-8.

23

be seen to lay in the creation of more compact, more useful, and more
intelligent instruments.
The role of artistic design therefore could be seen as helping to
cement the nature of instruments as devices for clarifying and
investigating nature. The utilitarian, minimal design of most
instruments made them easy to use and understand, and helped
demarcate the natural enquiry they had come to materialise as an
exact and empirical discipline. This understanding in and of itself
would come to help propagate what has come to be known (perhaps
anachronistically) as the Scientific Revolution. Further than that, the
artistic design of many eighteenth-century instruments, astronomical
and otherwise, may have come to serve as an allegory for the broader
enlightenment episteme, helping secure in the broader popular
consciousness the notion of natural enquiry as an act of precision,
certainty, measurement, and quantification.
Similarly the role of artisanal flair is significant. The trend towards
utilitarian, minimal designs channelled artisanal innovation and
industry into improving and enhancing the utility of many instruments.
This drive, propelled as much by commercial competition as by
technological limitations, led to increasingly accurate, reliable,
compact instruments. As astronomical instruments were developed
and invented over the eighteenth century, new forms and sources of
data could be gathered with them, leading to the production of new
knowledge, and helping to usher in new discoveries in astronomy and
beyond.
Therefore the roles of artistic design and artisanal flair in both the
design and the construction of these instruments are significant, if not
essential, to their propagation and popularity in the eighteenth
century. The manner in which they have been shown to have
influenced these instruments however is not perhaps what would be
24

expected however, and serves only to highlight the depth and

complexity of Enlightenment natural philosophy.

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