Accession No

6637

Brief Description

altitude dial, by Stefan von Gutz and Son, Austrian, late 19th Century

Origin

Austria; Vienna

Maker

Stefan von Gotz and Son

Class

dials

Earliest Date

1875

Latest Date

1900

Inscription Date

Material

metal (brass)

Dimensions

64mm (height) x 50mm (width) x 8mm (depth)

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Tesseract, Box 151, Hastings on Hudson, New York, 10706, U.S.A. on or before 18/11/2015. Catalogue 101, Winter 2015-16. Item number 13.

Inscription

ST. V. GUTZ & SOHNE

Description Notes

Altitude dial, by Stefan von Gutz and Son, late 19th century

Brass (?) altitude sundial with hinged pin gnomon, adjustable pointer and suspension hole. The pointer is set to the date and gnomon can be unfolded so it shadow falls on the opposite face. The dial is suspended by a cord and rotated until the shadow falls on the curving hour line. Does not need a compass or direction to function. Traces of silvering or perhaps gilding although mostly worn away. According to Tesseract, sundials such as these were sometimes referred to as "Zappeck" dials (for a maker) or a "ham" dial (for its shape).

Complete.

References

Events

Description
This unusual sundial, dating from the late 19th century, does not need a knowledge of direction in order to read the time. By suspending the dial from a cord at the hole, the user could flick out the gnomon and rotate the dial until a shadow fell across the rear side of the sundial, which shows a curved line with numbers that then indicates the time.
05/07/2017
Created by: Rosanna Evans on 05/07/2017

FM:47218