Overview
- The brass instrument, which goes under the hammer Wednesday, carries a £1.5–2.5 million estimate at Sotheby’s London and is on public view ahead of the sale.
- Made in Lahore in 1612 by brothers Qa'im Muhammad and Muhammad Muqim for Mughal official Aqa Afzal, the piece later belonged to Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II and Maharani Gayatri Devi before entering a private collection.
- The astrolabe is unusually large for its type at nearly 30 cm in diameter, about 46 cm tall, and over 8 kg in weight, placing it among the largest known examples.
- Sotheby’s notes list 94 cities with coordinates, 38 star pointers linked by floral tracery, five precision-calibrated plates, and degree divisions down to a third of a degree, with inscriptions in Persian and Sanskrit naming places such as Mecca, Bijapur, Ajmer, Kashmir, and Lahore.
- Artnet News reports the lot could challenge the auction record for an astrolabe, set just under £1 million in 2014, given its rarity, condition, and documented provenance.