Armillary Spheres

The armillary sphere shows the Earth (a central ball) surrounded by rings (armilla in Latin) which represent the great circles of the heavens. It was widely used during the 17th and 18th centuries in scientific debates over the relative merits of the competing central Earth and central Sun theories.

This collectible piece is crafted of bronze and metal with a hardwood base. One of the legendary Titans battling Zeus was defeated and decreed to carry the weight of the world on his mighty shoulders. Forever. Our armillary dial, however, has Atlas carrying the entire universe. That’s to say the known Renaissance universe, when the earth was still believed to be at its center. Gracefully intertwined silver ...

A solid bronze construction of hoops surrounding a planet earth and mounted on a solid bronze stand. Early man, looking at the heavens, believed the stars were fixed to the inside surface of a rotating sphere. Copernicus gave his name to the theory of an Earth-centered universe. Armillary dials have the earth positioned inside a mesh of bronze hoops, symbolizing the course of the planets as known at the tim...