Specialist Hire For Films, Television & Photography

The Observatory set at Stowe School for "Stardust", MARV Films, with Robert DeNiro and Sienna Miller. Present and recent credits include "The Other Boleyn Girl", with Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johanssen and Kristen Scott Thomas, which had its World premiere at the Berlin Film Festival on 15th February and is on general release from 7th March: "The Golden Compass", with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, being the first part of the Philip Pullman trilogy "His Dark Materials", and "Elizabeth: the Golden Age", with Cate Blanchett, are now on general release. We are currently working on "The Wolf Man", with Sir Anthony Hopkins, for Universal Pictures, and "The Mists of Time", now shooting in Malta. The first series of "The Tudors" has been aired on BBC2. The second series is now in post-production, and a third series is mooted. Past credits include "Amazing Grace", "E=MC2", "To The Ends of the Earth", "The Da Vinci Code", "The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse", "Columbus", "Alexander the Great", "The Gunpowder Plot" and " Nouvelle France". Past credits include "The Onedin Line" and "The Voyage of Charles Darwin", both for BBC Television, several versions of "Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde" and "Dracula", "Restoration", "The Madness of King George", "Isaac Newton", "Galileo" and "Master and Commander". We provide early props from the time of the Ancient Greeks to the early 20th Century. Advice on what is correct for any period is free. Our stock includes items suitable for a medieval alchemist, a Renaissance astrologer/mathematician, an 18th Century physician, mariners and navigators of many periods, or any scientist/inventor of the 19th Century. It includes early astrolabes, microscopes, telescopes, armillary spheres, orreries and globes. We hire by periods: 3 days, 7 days, or longer by arrangement. We have not given hire fees as these vary according to each item and the period required. Email or telephone us for an instant quote.

Sections

Natural History: animal, bird and other skeletons
Globes (celestial and terrestrial), armillary spheres and orreries, suitable for AD1600-1900
Early domestic copperware, earthenware and shop signs
Laboratory or dispensary glassware and apparatus, chemist's bottles and early microscopes
Medical or surgical instruments and apparatus, and hospital-ware suitable for any period from 1820-1950
Sextants, compasses, and other instruments for early navigation and exploration, suitable for AD1500-1900
Concave and distorting mirrors, prisms, magnifying lenses and glasses, and other optical devices
Physics apparatus and instruments. Early electrical apparatus and spark generators
Time and the weather: Hour-glasses, clocks, barometers, barographs and related items
Weighing scales
The Picture Library 1776-1937

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