# Orrery made by John Rowley for the Earl of Orrery > John Rowley - 1712-1713 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/john-rowley/rowley-orrery-earl-of-orrery-science-museum/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-09-18 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** John Rowley - **Date:** 1712-1713 - **Medium:** Wood, brass, steel, ivory and glass - **Dimensions:** 500 x 900 mm (overall, estimate, per the Science Museum Group's own catalogue) - **Object type:** Clocks and instruments - **Period:** British, early eighteenth century (reign of Queen Anne) - **Current location:** Science Museum, London (on display, Science Museum: Science City) - **Attribution:** disputed ## Summary A hand-turned demonstration instrument built in 1712-13 by the London instrument-maker John Rowley for his patron Charles Boyle, the fourth Earl of Orrery, showing the Earth and Moon in motion around the Sun. It is the object that gave the entire class of mechanical planetary model its English name, and it is also a small, self-contained case study in how credit moves: the working mechanism it copies was built earlier by the clockmaker George Graham, who is named as inventor on the instrument's own plaque yet is absent from the word history remembers.The Science Museum's own record of this object is honest about what it does not know. It hedges on how Graham's design reached Rowley, and it does not explain where the orrery spent the 239 years between its completion and its arrival in the museum's collection in 1952. This record follows that same honesty rather than smoothing the gaps over: it names the open questions plainly, including a tension between Boyle's recorded bequest of his instruments to Christ Church, Oxford, and this instrument's quite different, and quite undocumented, route to South Kensington.What is certain is simpler and, in its way, more interesting than a clean chain of ownership would be. A clockmaker built a machine. An instrument-maker copied and improved it for at least two patrons. An essayist wrote it up and, in doing so, got even the story of his own role wrong on the very label meant to set the record straight. The object survives; the credit did not travel with it cleanly; and the record here tries to put both back in view. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **c. 1700-1710** George Graham (and, in his working partnership, Thomas Tompion) `[documented]` (origin of the mechanism) Graham is credited as the source of the underlying mechanism both by the Science Museum Group's own catalogue entry for this object and by the object's own plaque, which reads in part 'Orrery invented by Graham.' The exact date is disputed across sources (1700 on the plaque; c.1704 or c.1710 elsewhere), and the mechanism by which Graham's design or machine reached Rowley is stated cautiously by the Science Museum ('may have been inspired by') rather than as a documented handover. - **1712-1713** John Rowley (maker), for Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery (patron) `[documented]` (manufacture and commission) Rowley built this specific instrument for Boyle in this period. The Science Museum Group's own title for the object, 'Orrery made by John Rowley for the Earl of Orrery,' and its object number 1952-73 identify it as the Boyle commission specifically, distinct from the copy Rowley is separately recorded as having made for Prince Eugene of Savoy. - **1713-1952** Not documented; presumed within the family holding the Earl of Orrery, later Earl of Cork and Orrery, title `[unknown]` (gap) No source consulted for this record documents an owner, location or transaction for this instrument across this 239-year span. The Science Museum's 1952 credit line, 'Earl of Cork and Orrery' (the title the Orrery earldom merged into in 1753), implies the object remained with the family, but no specific individual, place or event bridges the gap. Charles Boyle is separately recorded as having left his library and scientific instruments to Christ Church, Oxford, on his death in 1731; this object's appearance instead via the Cork and Orrery family line in 1952 is not reconciled with that bequest by any source consulted. - **1952-present** Science Museum, London (Science Museum Group) `[documented]` (acquisition) The object entered the Science Museum's collection in 1952, given object number 1952-73 and credited to the Earl of Cork and Orrery. Whether the transfer was a gift, purchase or bequest, and the name of the individual Earl involved, is not stated in the Science Museum Group's own published catalogue record and is not established by any other source consulted. ## Open questions - Where was this orrery kept between 1712-13 and its entry into the Science Museum's collection in 1952? No intermediate owner, location or transaction is documented in the sources consulted. - Was the 1952 transfer to the Science Museum a gift, a purchase or a bequest, and from which individual holding the title Earl of Cork and Orrery? The museum's own record gives a credit line but not a mechanism. - Does the copy Rowley made for Prince Eugene of Savoy survive, and if so, where? No source consulted for this record locates it today. - Charles Boyle is recorded as having bequeathed his library and scientific instruments to Christ Church, Oxford, on his death in 1731. Why does this orrery appear instead in the Earl of Cork and Orrery's family credit line in 1952, rather than in a Christ Church provenance? The relationship between the two accounts is not resolved by the sources consulted. - Was the naming of the device after Boyle, and the corresponding near-erasure of Graham from its popular name, the product of any deliberate choice by Rowley, Boyle or Steele, or simply a period convention of naming instruments for owners rather than makers? No named historian's published argument on this specific question was located in the sources consulted. - The plaque on the instrument dates Graham's invention to 1700, while other sources place Graham and Tompion's planetarium work at c. 1704 or c. 1710. Which date, if any of these, is correct has not been established here. ## Sources - [1] Science Museum Group Collection, object 1952-73, 'Orrery made by John Rowley for the Earl of Orrery.' - [2] Science Museum Group Collection, person record, 'John Rowley 1668-1728.' - [3] Science Museum Group Collection, person record, 'George Graham 1673-1751.' - [4] Science Museum Group Collection, object 1898-33/2, 'Engraving of "The Grand Orrery" by Rowley.' - [5] Wikipedia, 'Orrery.' Consulted for the plaque transcription, the Steele naming correction, the Huygens planetary machine, and the Tompion/Graham dating. Flagged as a tertiary source for replacement with the Science Museum's own curatorial file and a peer-reviewed history-of-science account. - [6] Wikipedia, 'George Graham (clockmaker).' - [7] Wikipedia, 'Thomas Tompion.' - [8] Wikipedia, 'Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery.' - [9] Wikipedia, 'The Guardian (1713).' Consulted to verify the periodical and date of Steele's essay; this article's own text does not itself cover the orrery essay in the version consulted. - [10] British Map Engravers, biographical entry, 'John Rowley,' drawing on the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and other standard reference works. - [11] Chetham's Library, 'Two Libraries and an Orrery...' (blog post). - [12] BBC Sky at Night Magazine, 'Orrery history and definition.' - [13] Wikimedia Commons, File:The Original Orrery.jpg, file description page and extmetadata (licence and photographer verification). - [14] Ewing, Jack, 'Ole Christensen Romer,' Research Starters, EBSCOhost, 2024. Tertiary encyclopaedia entry, flagged for replacement with a primary catalogue record from the Royal Danish Collection (Rosenborg Castle), which holds Romer's own planetarium and eclipsarium. - [15] Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, collection record, 'Orrery, by Thomas Tompion and George Graham, London, c. 1710' (inventory 97810, IRN 9536). - [16] Wikimedia Commons, File:Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery by Charles Jervas.jpg. - [17] Wikimedia Commons, File:Portrait of George Graham MET DP804442.jpg. - [18] Wikimedia Commons, File:Grand orrery by Benjamin Martin, London, 1767 - Putnam Gallery - Harvard University - DSC07953.jpg. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.