Accession No

0739

Brief Description

pillar dial, French, 19th Century

Origin

France

Maker

Class

dials

Earliest Date

1800

Latest Date

1900

Inscription Date

Material

ceramic (porcelain); metal (brass); wood

Dimensions

height 250mm; diameter 63mm

Special Collection

Robert Whipple collection

Provenance

Purchased from Gertrude Hamilton (trading as ‘Mercator’), Paris, France, in 10/1933.

Inscription

Description Notes

Porcelain pillar; the cap has a wooden plug beneath to fit the hollow cylinder and house brass gnomon. Cap decorated with gold painted bands. Calibrated with ‘whole phase’ sinusoidal hour lines divided V - XII, I - VII, numbered by I in black, with halfhour lines marked in red; associated scale of maximum solar elevation divided [0] - 63˚ 5´, numbered by 10˚. Date lines with named months and marked every 10 days, with divisions in red and black. The equinoxes marked ‘Printims’, ‘Eté’, ‘Augomne’, ‘Hiver’. Latitude given as 49˚ 35´.

References

Events