Accession No

0344

Brief Description

horizontal pedestal dial, by Fabiani Cuzzetti, Italian, 1699

Origin

Italy

Maker

Cuzzetti, Fabiani

Class

dials

Earliest Date

1699

Latest Date

1699

Inscription Date

Material

stone (soapstone); wood (oak); metal (iron)

Dimensions

length 254mm; breadth 210mm; height 132mm

Special Collection

Robert Whipple collection

Provenance

Purchased by Robert Stewart Whipple from Antique Art Galleries, London, on 30/11/1927.

Inscription

‘Ex Operib, Presbyt: Fabiani Cuzzetti’ ()
‘From the Bell Tower of Waltham Abbey Church
erected 1558, renamed 1900’ (MS on base)

Description Notes

Horizontal pedestal dial, by Fabiani Cuzzetti, Italian, 1699.

Soapstone dial plate carved in relief, set in oak block; hour circle divided 4 - 12, 1- 8, numbered by 1; iron wire style for 45˚ N with motto ‘Muttus loquor’. Vignette of putti playing (‘Dukes Amorum Insidiæ’), putto fighting a dragon (‘Et Ferocissimos vinco’) and putto chased by a skeleton (‘De amore ad Mortem’). Fuurther inscription ‘Sum mutum and mutii exptico lumina Ph..... Aurib hinc nullis opus est me interpicte Temp Vmbra mihi linqua est, nec in Vmbra Sonat. Omne scies oculos si sobit Vmbra tuos.’

Condition

References

Events

Description
The horizontal dial is the most common form of sundial. The portable version proved very popular with the upper classes during the 19th Century. During this period it could best be described as the wristwatch of its day.

The hour lines are engraved onto a horizontal surface, with a gnomon (pointer) in the centre. Seasonal variations (caused by the earth’s orbit being elliptical, not circular) have to be compensated for, as they can affect the raw reading by up to 18 minutes.
18/10/2002
Created by: Saffron Clackson and Boris Jardine on 18/10/2002

FM:43544