lodestone mounted in silver bands
Date: 1650-1700
Inventory Number: 0024
Classification: Lodestone
Subject:
Maker: English
Owner: Reverend Ebenezer Turell (1701 - 1778)
User: Department of Physics, Harvard University (founded 1884)
Cultural Region:
Dimensions:
11.7 x 10.9 x 6.4 cm (4 5/8 x 4 5/16 x 2 1/2 in.)
Bibliography:
Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen
The Apparatus of Science at Harvard, 1765-1800
Description:
This large natural magnetite is fitted at the north and south poles with iron plates each of which ends in tapered foot. The silver mounting consists of a central band and two caps binding the iron plates to the stone. The banding is stamped with acanthus leaf and Tudor rose pattern. A compass rose of sixteen points with fleur-de-lys pointing north was worked into the design on top of the loadstone. An ornamental silver handle runs from north to south. A stylized emblem—the Tudor rose—and four cherubs, each representing one of the four major trade winds, decorate the bottom of the loadstone. It is cracked in several places.
In Collection(s)
Signedunsigned
FunctionMagnetite was used to re-magnetize compass needles and to do a variety of experiments with the "magical" power of magnetism.
Curatorial Remarks"The unknown silversmith decorated the compass rose with a traditional design. Artistically, his cherub-faced four winds and Tudor rose, although naive, have strength and charm. But as a craftsman he had little skill. The pierced, incised, and stamped banding is sloppy. The die was not carefully aligned before he struck the design into the metal, with the result that many segments of the pattern are out of register." (Wheatland, p. 153)
ProvenanceAcquired by Harvard College from the legacy of the Rev. Ebenezer Turell on February 23, 1779; Harvard Department of Physics, Jefferson Lab prep room for teaching; transfer to CHSI, 1949
Published ReferencesDavid P. Wheatland, The Apparatus of Science at Harvard, 1765-1800 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), 152-153.
Barbara Maria Stafford and Frances Terpak, Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2001), 173, figure 34, 365, no. 9.