Accession No

1769

Brief Description

perpetual calendar, German, 19th C

Origin

Germany

Maker

Class

horology

Earliest Date

1800

Latest Date

1900

Inscription Date

Material

metal (brass, silvered brass)

Dimensions

diameter 49 mm

Special Collection

Holden-White collection

Provenance

On loan from The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge. Donated by Charles Holden-White to the Fitzwilliam Museum. C. Holden-White collection no. 1935-123.

Inscription

Description Notes

Silvered brass disc with brass pierced plate rotating over each face.
Obverse: marked ‘CALENDARIVM PERPETVVM’, with days given on brass disc in German (sontag, monntag, dienstag, mittwoch, donnerstag, freytag, samstag) and by symbol; rotates over circle of days divided 1 - 31, numbered by 1.
Reverse: sector cut away from brass disc to show calibrations for zodiac sign (marked ‘sonnen lavff’), months (marked ‘monat des iahrs’), length of day and night (‘tag lang’ and ‘nacht lang’), divided 8 - 16 - 8, numbered by 1, times of sunrise and sunset (‘[sun] avffg’ and ‘[sun] vntrg’), divided 4 - 8 - 4.

Condition good; complete.

References

Events