French Copernican armillary sphere, c. 1890

A French Copernican hand rotating armillary sphere of the of circa 1890. Arising from an ebonized wooden stand with rotating planets around the sun. Eleven rotating celestial bodies are depicted including the Sun, Venus, Mercurius, Earth, Moon, Mars, Vesta, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.At the centre the sun as a metal ball, the earth as a miniature papier mâche globe and the moon as a white bone globe. The earth can be rotated by hand and the remaining planets are displayed as cardboard circles with copper engravings of the planets. Their names names and their complete orbit around the Sun written in years, days and hours. For Saturn it would be 20 years, 176 days and 14 hours ‘fait sa revolution en 20 ans 176 jours et 14 heures’. In good condition.Height: 40 cm.