Accession No
1723
Brief Description
horizontal dial, silver Butterfield type, by Roch Blondeau, French, 1673
Origin
France; Paris
Maker
Blondeau, Roch
Class
dials; horology
Earliest Date
1673
Latest Date
1673
Inscription Date
1673
Material
metal (silver, other); glass; cloth; hide
Dimensions
breadth 43mm; height 57mm; compass diameter 22mm
Special Collection
Holden-White collection
Provenance
On loan from The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge. Donated by Charles Holden-White to the Fitzwilliam Museum. Holden-White collection no. 1935-1977.
Inscription
‘Rich blondeau AParis 1673’
Description Notes
Horizontal dial, silver Butterfield type, by Roch Blondeau, French, 1673.
Silver; oval dial plate standing on compass base and 2 feet; decoratively engraved at base of style; outer hour scales terminating in scrolls. 3 hour scales for ‘50’, ‘45’ and ‘40’ lat. calibrated IIII-XII-VIII by 1 to 15 and 4-12-8, and 5-12-7 by 1 to 30’; folding adjustable style, decoratively engraved, calibrated 35-55 by 5 to 1o; inset compass, with ‘N’ point; verso of dial plate decoratively engraved style-spring-plate, signed. Verso of compass box decoratively engraved. Oval case covered in black shagreen and lined with red velvet.
Condition: fair (box poor).
[NOTE: On 06/12/2013 XRF analysis was conducted on this instrument. Results and analysis are given in the ‘Notes’ field and in the OHF.]
References
Events
Description
The Butterfield dial was named after the man who popularised this kind of sundial. His name was Michael Butterfield, and he was an instrument maker in Paris, though he originally came from England.
Butterfield dials are a type of horizontal dial, normally octagonal or oval in shape, and are quite small. They have several different hour scales marked out on them, each of which is used at a different latitude. However, the gnomon also needs to be adjusted for the latitude. Butterfield designed an elegant scale for the gnomon adjustment, in the form of a bird. The beak of the bird marked the place on the latitude scale of the gnomon, which was lifted up or down until it was at the correct latitude. A compass in the bottom of the dial was used to make sure that it was pointing in the right direction.
This kind of sundial was not very accurate, but they were made in very large numbers, so they were obviously very popular. Most of the existing ones came from France, where many different makers produced them.
FM:39814
Images (Click to view full size):
