This instrument combines a clock and an orrery or planetarium- a mechanical model of the Solar System that illustrates or predicts the relative positions and motions of the planets and moons relative to the sun.
Made of brass, steel and copper, this planetarium features a brass sun at the center surrounded by the first six planets- Mercury to Saturn, with a Moon which circles the Earth. This is held atop the horizontal plate over a multiwheeled geared mechanism. Two bands surround the planets below a decorative finial, graduated on both sides and with an equatorial band graduated in degrees on the inner side and the names of the months on the outside. It also has an ungraduated steel ecliptic ring and an ecliptic band fixed at the opposing angel showing the names and symbols of the houses of the Zodiac. The horizontal steel hour and minute dials are beneath and below them a further two drum wheeled and geared mechanism surrounded by four decorative scrolled bars. The instrument is on a baluster-turned column and plinth base on a turned mahogany plinth, the underside recessed to house the turning key. With a glass dome case.
The piece features a plaque stamped Peter Gibaut 1986 and is similar to clock orreries made by St. James of London in the same period.
