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Description: | 'Urania's Mirror of a view of the Heavens. London. Published by Samuel Leigh, 18 Strand'.
Set of 32 cards and one chart of the heavens for the latitude of London. The cards are hand coloured and show the contellations. Each star is pricked out in the centre, and due to the tissue paper backing, the light shines though when the card is held up.
Each card shows a painted figure or animal, as well as the four compass points and the names of the important stars. When a card is held up to the light, it gives a realistic representation of the constellation pattern, corresponding to the size and magnitudes of the brightest stars and guiding the novice astronomer around the night sky.
From the most ancient times civilisations have given names and mythologies to conspicuous patterns of bright stars to help make the sky seem more familiar. The cards were developed in the early 19th century as an educational tool. All cards and charts are kept in a box lined with yellow paper and decorated and painted on the outside.
Set of 32 cards. negative numbers D2610/1, 2 and 3.
Valuation - Tesseract catalogue, Summer 2005 values an identical set (item no 7) at $5500 approx = �3000
caption: Urania's Mirror - Sidney Hall; Samuel Leigh
caption: Urania's Mirror Cards
caption: Urania's mirror constellation card noctua, corvus, crater, sextans, uranie, hydra, felis, lupus, centaurus, antlia, argo navis and pyxis nautica by Samuel Leigh 1825
caption: Lynx and Telescopium Herschilii
caption: Sagittarius and Corona Australis
caption: Chart of the Heavens for the Latitude of London
caption: unavailable
caption: Urania's mirror constellation card Auriga by Samuel Leigh 1825
caption: Urania's mirror constellation card Aries and Musca borealis by Samuel Leigh 1825
caption: Urania's mirror constellation card Bootes canes venatici, coma berenices and quadrans muralis by Samuel Leigh 1825
caption: Urania's mirror constellation card lacerta, cygnus, lyra, vulpecula and anser by Samuel Leigh 1825 | Publisher: | "http://collections.rmg.co.uk/" | Rights holder: | "Royal Museums Greenwich" | Subjects: | constellation cards The Old Royal Observatory Greenwich | Source: | Royal Museums Greenwich | Identifier: | http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections... | Go to resource |
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