Armillary Sphere Table Lamp — Handmade Aluminium

An armillary sphere with a light inside it — so the rings throw their own shadows across the wall.

Handmade in aluminium with a hand-applied finish, mounted as a table lamp.

Details

• Table lamp with armillary sphere shade
• Handmade aluminium construction
• Concentric rings on a fixed axis
• Suits a study, desk, library, hallway or console table

What an armillary is

An armillary sphere is a model of the sky as it appears from Earth: rings for the celestial equator, the ecliptic that the sun appears to travel, the tropics and the meridian, all set on an axis tilted to match the Earth's own.

Astronomers used them for around two thousand years, from Greece and China through to Tycho Brahe, both to teach and to take actual measurements. The instrument is on the flag of Portugal, where it stood for the age of navigation.

Lit from within, the rings cast a genuinely striking shadow pattern in a darkened room.