Accession No

1720

Brief Description

horizontal dial, Butterfield type, by Michael Butterfield, circa 1700

Origin

France; Paris

Maker

Butterfield, Michael

Class

dials; horology

Earliest Date

1700

Latest Date

1700

Inscription Date

Material

metal (brass); glass; wood; hide (leather); cloth (velvet, satin)

Dimensions

box length 96mm; breadth 88mm; thickness 17mm

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. 1935-74.

Inscription

‘Butterfield AParis’ (base)

Description Notes

Brass; octagonal dial plate standing on compass box with one turned foot; decoratively enggraved at base of style; 4 hour scales for ‘52’, ‘49’, ‘45’ & ‘40’ deg. lat calibrated 4-12-8, IIII-XII-VIII, 4-12-8 & V-XII-VII all by 1 to 15’; folding adjustable ‘bird’ style, decoratively engraved calibrated 40-60 by 10 to 1 deg.; inset compass with 8 points, fleur de lis north, offset 15 deg. W for magnetic variation. Verso of dial plate a decoratively engraved style-spring plate; list of towns and latitudes.
Fitted wooden box covered with maroon velvet and lined with blue velvet and white satin; brass hinges and hook fasteners.

Condition: good (box good).

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:39834