A philosopher giving a lecture on the orrery

Wright, Joseph (of Derby), after

Mezzotint on paper of a philosopher giving an astronomy lecture using a clockwork model of the solar system called an Orrery, engraved by William Pether (1731-1821) and published by John Boydell (1719-1804) in London in 1768. It is a copy of a painting by Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797) now in the Derby Museums and Art Gallery. The mechanical model was based on a design by John Rowley made for Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery, for whom the instrument was named. Scientific demonstrations were popular forms of entertainment at the time. The lecturer has been identified as John Whitehurst (1713-1788), clockmaker and geologist from Derby, and the man taking notes as Peter Perez Burdett (c.1735-1793), a mapmaker, printmaker and friend of the artist. The boy in the foreground is identified as Laurence Shirley, nephew of Washington Shirley, Earl of Ferrers, who bought the painting and whose county house was 12 miles from Derby.