4 Armillary sphere: celestial bodies and orbits Technological examination and conservation concept KEYWORDS: Armillary sphere; plywood; paper with gravure printing; metal; conservation. The armillary sphere, which is part of the collection of the Museum Bückeburg in Lower Saxony, Germany, was made around the beginning of the 18th century. It is believed that it was made together with a celestial globe and an earth globe by the Homann publishing house in Nuremberg for the princely house of Schaumburg-Lippe. Armillary spheres were utility objects of science, used to represent the circular movements of celestial bodies. The combination of the materials wood, paper and metal makes the armillary sphere an object that is very rarely found in German museums as the collections largely contain drawings, reconstructions and brass armillary spheres. Due to the long time in storage and the age of the armillary sphere, the materials show different damages and soiling, which strongly influences the image of the object. Therefore, one of the first steps was the development of a cleaning proposal that would do justice to all materials without risking damaging any of them. In addition to the variety of materials, a special form of woodworking is found on the circular parts of the armillary sphere. These were made of plywood. The technique of gluing thin layers of wood together in the direction of the grain was already a common method in furniture making in the 18th century. This technique produces not only decorative but also stronger pieces than if they were cut from solid wood. Only very limited records and literature can be found on the production of this type of wood material at the time, and these are often not precise. For this reason, it was necessary to reconstruct the production in a test series, which brought interesting results. miriam.gayer[at]outlook.com
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