18th-century celestial map. A fine star chart from the Atlas Coelestis, the largest and most accurate star atlas published up to that time.

Charles II founded the Royal Observatory in Greenwich in 1675 and in the same year John Flamsteed (1646-1719), was appointed the first Astronomer Royal. Flamsteed began to collect data on the stars as observed using a telescope in order to create a star atlas showing the sky above Greenwich. This was a huge undertaking and Flamsteed didn't live to see its publication, which was finally produced by his widow in 1729, ten years after his death. The stars were positioned and the co-ordinates drawn by Abraham Sharp, while the figures in the constellations were after drawings by Sir James Thornhill and others. In his atlas Flamsteed corrects the errors in position made by earlier astronomers such as Bayer in the seventeenth century. It was considered the first significant contribution of the Greenwich Observatory, and the numerical Flamsteed designations for stars are still in use.

Hand-coloured star chart heightened with gold and silver, engraved by John Mynde, from the second edition of Flamsteed's 'Atlas Coelestis'. Framed and glazed, overall size: 67.5 by 119.5 by 4cm.