Accession No

6837

Brief Description

replica universal mechanical equinoctial dial, by The Franklin Mint, American, 20th Century

Origin

United States of America; Pennsylvania

Maker

The Franklin Mint

Class

dials

Earliest Date

1964

Latest Date

1999

Inscription Date

Material

metal (brass); wood; cloth

Dimensions

dial: 210mm (width), 250mm (depth), 115mm (height); wooden base: 230mm (width), 270mm (depth), 25mm (height)

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Tesseract July 2025. Purchased by a private individual c. 2000.

Inscription

The Deutsches Museum
Universal Equatorial Sundial
No.4 1764

Description Notes

Replica universal equinoctial dial, by The Franklin Mint, American, 20th Century.

Brass sundial with auxiliary scales and adjustment options allowing for accurate reading of true local time to the minute. A brass base plate with some decorative elements rests on four height-adjustable feet. It is largely square shaped, but with concave corners. In the centre, a latitude ladder scale, 10-64˚, marked at every 10˚, runs along an slit in the brass, in which a slider sits. A hinged strut attached to the dial itself, which is also hinged against the base plate, can be placed into this slider in order to change the angle according to the latitude scale. Around this central scale on the base plate, a circle of decorative brass-work matches the identical decorative elements on the dial, and has the four cardinal points marked in Latin abbreviations. A fitting for a plumb bob is attached to the base plate at the front, while at the back an inscription in English reads "The Deutsches Museum Equatorial Sundial No.4 1764". The dial itself, set onto the base plate by a hinge, is gear-shaped, with a toothed edge. The outer rim of the dial is labelled with the hours in Roman numerals, I-XII, twice. An attachment, which is joined to this by a screw of similar style to those that fit the feet to the base plate, has a double pinhole gnomon which can be adjusted to a calendar scale, which has each of the twelve months labelled. The opposite side of this scale features the zodiac signs. The gnomon and surrounding attachment are richly decorated with a repeating geometric pattern, as well as some floral elements. The attachment ends in a clock face of 60 minutes, labelled to every 5th minute. The clock face overhangs the edge of the dial itself, and has a small gear on its reverse side which interacts with the toothed edge of the dial, so that turning the attachment as a whole, turns the hand of the minute clock.

The base for the sundial is made from wood, and is largely rectangular but, like the brass base plate of the dial, has inward-curving corners. Four inserts in the wood hold fabric discs, and correspond to the four feet of the dial. On the bottom of the wooden base, there are a further four fabric discs.

References

Events