17th-century Astrolobe once Owned by Indian Royalty sells for £2m

A rare 17th-century brass astrolabe once owned by Jaipur royalty has sold for more than £2 million at auction in London.

The hand-held astronomical device, described as one of the finest examples of its kind, was sold by Sotheby’s after being exhibited at its London galleries.

A Sotheby’s representative said the sale had broken the previous auction record for an Islamic-world astronomical instrument.

The object, originally part of the royal collection of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II of Jaipur, later passed to his wife Maharani Gayatri Devi, who was widely regarded as one of the most glamorous women of her era.

Following the Maharaja’s death, the astrolabe remained with Gayatri Devi before moving into a private collection during her lifetime.

Benedict Carter, head of Islamic and Indian Art at Sotheby’s, said the instrument was “perhaps the largest in existence” and noted that it had never been publicly exhibited before.

Astrolabes were once among the most advanced scientific tools in the world. Made from layered metallic discs, they were used to tell time, map the stars, determine the direction of Mecca and track the movement of celestial bodies.

Dr Federica Gigante of the Oxford Centre for History of Science, Medicine and Technology, compared them to modern smartphones because of their versatility.

She said: “They are essentially a two-dimensional projection of a three-dimensional universe. I compare them to modern-day smartphones because you can do so many things with them.

“You can calculate the time of sunset, sunrise, the height of a building, the depth of a well, distance and even use them to predict the future.

“Along with an almanac they were once used to cast horoscopes.”

Astrolabes were first developed in ancient Greece in the 2nd Century BCE before spreading into the Islamic world by the 8th Century.

Over time, centres of production flourished across Iraq, Iran, North Africa and al-Andalus, in present-day Spain.

This particular instrument was made in the early 17th Century in Lahore, now in present-day Pakistan, when the city had become one of the leading centres of astrolabe-making in the Mughal world.

It was created by two brothers, Qa’im Muhammad and Muhammad Muqim, for Mughal nobleman Aqa Afzal, who governed Lahore during the period.

The brothers were part of the renowned Lahore School, a family-based tradition of astrolabe production passed down through generations.

Only two astrolabes are known to have been jointly made by them. The second, much smaller in size, is now housed in a museum in Iraq.

Aqa Afzal, originally from Isfahan in Iran, held several senior positions under Mughal emperors Jahangir and Shah Jahan.

Carter said: “It weighs 8.2kg, measures nearly 30cm in diameter and stands about 46cm tall – almost four times the size of a typical astrolabe from 17th-century India.

“It also has a striking cross-cultural element. The star pointers carry their standard names in Persian, alongside Sanskrit equivalents etched in the Devanagari script.”

According to Sotheby’s, the astrolabe includes 94 cities inscribed with their longitudes and latitudes, as well as 38 star pointers connected by intricate floral tracery.

It also contains five precision-calibrated plates and degree divisions “so fine they are subdivided down to a third of a degree”.

Carter said this reflected the Lahore School at its artistic and scientific peak, where beauty and functionality were equally important.

Unlike earlier astrolabes produced in some parts of the Middle East that prioritised utility, this example demonstrated extraordinary technical refinement and decorative craftsmanship.

The instrument also highlighted the scientific ambitions of the Mughal court, where astronomy and astrology were taken seriously by rulers and nobles alike.

Gigante said: “It is not only big, beautiful and heavy, it is so incredibly accurate that it will give you the exact degree of altitude [of a celestial body].”

She added that the only comparable instrument was likely one made for Abbas II of Persia.

Before the sale, Sotheby’s had predicted strong interest from both museums and private collectors because of the astrolabe’s exceptional condition and royal provenance.

The sale surpassed the previous record held by an Ottoman astrolabe made for Sultan Bayezid II, which sold for just under £1 million in 2014.