Seller, John, senior.

folio (665 x 390mm.), no text, illustration: collection of 8 celestial and astronomical charts by Senex, Seller, Paridies and Halley (see below), on guards, binding: contemporary vellum-backed boards, 7 charts lacking volvelles (not called for on eighth chart), some worming to guards, some soiling, binding slightly worn

This collection consists of:

1. [Harris, Joseph]. Stellarum fixarum hemisphaerium Boreale. The Northern Hemisphere Projected on the Plane of the Aequator in which all the Stars contain’d in the Britannick Catalogue (as Publish’d by Dr. Halley) are carefully laid down and adapted to the beginning of the year 1690. [no imprint]
2. Harris, Joseph. Stellarum fixarum hemisphaerium Australe. The Southern Hemisphere Projected on the Plane of the Aequator in which all the Stars contain’d in the Britannick Catalogue and those Observ’d by Sr. Edm. Halley at the Isl. of St. Helena are carefully layd down for the Year 1690 by Joseph Harris… [n.d.], engraved and sold by John Senex
3. [Harris, Joseph]. Stellarum fixarum hemisphaerium Boreale, in quo omnes stellae in Catalogo Britannico descriptae in plano Eclipticae, eo situ quem anno 1690… Delineavit et sculpsit Johan Senex. R.S.S.
4. [Harris, Joseph]. Stellarum fixarum hemisphaerium Australe, in plano Eclipticae depictum, omnes catalagi Britannici stellas exhibens, una cum iis quas Cl. Halleius in insuala Stae. Helenae observavit, co situ delineatas quem anno 1690 habuerunt
5. Seller, John. A Coelestiall Planisphere by J. Seller
6. Seller, John. [Untitled Map of the Northern Celestial Hemisphere] The Right Ascensions and Declinations of the Principal Fixed Stars in both Hemisphears to ye year 1678… printed and sold by John Seller. A second state, with the date in the title altered from 1676
7. [Halley, E.] …Australis Hemisphaerii tabulam, title within the dedication. [John Seller Sr., 1678]. There exist two very similar plates for this map, both engraved by the Scotsman James Clark (also Clarke or Clerk). This version was used in some examples of Seller’s folio Atlas maritimus, as companion to the previous map. The other version was used in Halley’s Catalogus stellarum australium sive supplementum catalogi Tychonici, London: Thomas James for R. Hardford, 1679 (see for example the copy in these Macclesfield Science D-H, lot 970, illustrating the map, this latter version with the engraver's name and dedication printed from a second plate, below the lower border)
8. Seller, J. Zodiacus stellatus cujus limitibus Planetarum Omnium visibles viae comprehenduntur. Autore Jo: Seller Serenissimi Reg. Hydrographo

John Seller senior's catalogues present a number of problems, not least of which is whether the items advertised were actually in print, or advertised in expectation that they would be. The most detailed Seller advertisements date from the early part of his career, from c. 1669 to c. 1686. Two late advertisements refer to a folio celestial atlas, as though it were in print, although no example can now be traced.

While much of this is speculative, and although this volume was obviously compiled by John Senex, c. 1710, several of the maps are by Seller, and a number of those may be credited to him; it may well be that this atlas, and the example in lot 3281, represent the bones of Seller’s folio celestial atlas as revised by Senex who worked, for a short time between 1702 and 1707, with Seller’s successors Jeremiah Seller and Charles Price senior.

The two Harris celestials, numbers 1 and 2, are found in Defoe and Cutler’s Atlas maritimus et commercialis, London, 1728, where they are described as being sold separately for “Eight Shillings single”, but they form a uniform set with numbers 3 and 4, and may have been prepared significantly earlier. The Seller celestials are infrequently encountered in Seller’s Atlas maritimus (folio editions, c. 1677-1678), indicative of Seller’s habit of using printing plates for various atlases and books.