French Clock with orrery planetary model by Raingo Freres, 1830-1832

Dated 1830--2, this ornate planetary model was made by the Parisian clock makers, Raingo Frères. Called an orrery or more correctly a tellurium, it is a demonstration device to show the motions of the Earth and Moon around the Sun. It consists of a wooden drum base containing a music box surmounted by a four-legged stand supporting the orrery and a timepiece. This spring driven pendulum clock drives the planetary model at the same rate as the heavens. A glass dome that is now missing, originally covered the whole mechanism. Such apparatus became popular during seventeenth century especially after Sir Isaac Newton published his universal theory of gravity.