John Beavis' Zodiac Star Chart Copperplate Engraving of Scorpio

Details

Description

Rare English celestial chart by John Beavis (1693 – 1771) of a hand-colored copperplate engraving of Scorpio, the eighth sign … Read more Rare English celestial chart by John Beavis (1693 – 1771) of a hand-colored copperplate engraving of Scorpio, the eighth sign in the Zodiac, matted and mounted in a carved beautifully patinated giltwood frame. The inscription on the bottom reads: “To James Stephens, M.D. This Table Is Most Humbly Inscrib’d.” The reverse has a paper pocket with an insert of the description of Beavis and the Celestial Chart.

Beavis was a British physician and astronomer and was the original discoverer of the Crab Nebula, M1, which he had observed in 1731. In 1738 he set up a private observatory at Stock Newington, North London, from where he made observations for his own star atlas, Uranographia Britannica, which he completed in 1750. Bevis is one of only two persons in Britain who are known to have observed comet Halley on its first predicted return in 1759. See less