166. 166W Rare Planétaire Copernicien et sphère céleste mécanique, France, attribué à Emile Bertaux, fin du XIXe siècle A rare Copernician Planetarium with mechanical Celestial brass sphere, on a walnut and mahogany base, France, attributed to Emile Bertaux, late 19th century With multiple and variously sized brass spheres and smaller spheres revolving around a central shaft with base graduated circular dial inscribed 'SUD' 'EST' 'NORD' 'OUEST', and inscribed with the twelve astrological signs, within a glass sphere fitted to the inside with paper stars, on a turned mahogany waisted socle and veneered square shaped base, with brass crank handle, above a brass inset numbered plaquette inscribed in Turkish, mentioning that the Planetarium was offered in 1926 to the Balmumcu Museum, and with a paper label inscribed '98(B)' in red ink, 64cm high, 40.5cm diam., the base 32cm square (25in high, 15 1/2in diam., 12 1/2in wide) The hand cranked geared mechanism operating the nine planets, six mounted on curved armatures and two others and the Earth and Moon mounted on geared mechanism showing the orbits around the Sun, mounted within glass sphere applied with paper stars representing the constellations, the mahogany base containing the geared mechanism with crank handle at the side. A similar planetarium and celestial sphere signed 'Bertaux, geographer 25 rue Serpente Paris 1892' is conserved in the Musée de la Marine, Paris, inventory 15 NA13. Emile Bertaux (1840-1903) was a publisher of geographical works and maker of globes, he succeeded to the business of Charles Dien, and was established rue Serpente, 25 in Paris. In the 1867 International Exhibition he was awarded a bronze medal and he later devised a clockwork driven planetarium contained within a glass star sphere which is illustrated in the 1882 catalogue.