Accession No

0776

Brief Description

pillar dial with sand caster, silver, purportedly by Christoph Schissler, German, 1579, but actually a modern 20th-century fake

Origin

Germany; Augsburg [purported]; England [tentative attribution]

Maker

fake, unknown maker Schissler, Christoph [purported]

Class

dials

Earliest Date

1920

Latest Date

1935

Inscription Date

Material

metal (silver; rhodium)

Dimensions

height 168mm; base diameter 31mm

Special Collection

Robert Whipple collection

Provenance

Purchased by Robert Stewart Whipple from Antique Art Galleries, Grafton Street, London, England, on 08/03/1935. In 1955, Derek de Sola Price, as part of his research into possible fakes in the Whipple collection, wrote to Antique Art Galleries asking them to provide details of this object and others’ provenance. Their reply stated that they had “No idea where [this] came from.” [see OHF for Wh.0365 for copy of letter].

Inscription

‘CHRITOPHORVS SCHISSLER FECIT 79’ [sic - spelling mistake in signature!]

Description Notes

Pillar dial with sand caster, purportedly by Christoph Schissler, German, 1579, but actually a modern C20th fake.

Silver pillar; cap with cast foliate decoration with gnomon hinged beneath. The cylinder is hollow and in three parts connected by an internal ‘seive’ for a sand caster. Top section calibrated with ‘half-phase’ sinusoidal hour lines divided 5 - 12, 1 - 6, numbered by 1 and marked ‘HORAE COM VN ES’ with straight date lines marked by zodiac sign and divided to 10 days and 2 days. Also half-phase sinusoidal hour lines (dotted) marked ‘HORAE PLANETARVM’, divided VI - XII, I - VI, numbered by I. Central section with ‘TABVLA PLANET’. Base section with zodiac and hour lines.

Zinner, E. Astronomische Instrumente (München, 1956), p.513. According to Zinner the instrument is of doubtful authenticity: “Wohl eine Falschung.” [”Probably a fake.”]. This analysis was corroborated on 15/04/2015 when XRF analysis of the instrument revealed that it is rhodium plated (see ‘Notes’ field).

Condition: good.

[NOTE: On 15/04/2015 XRF analysis was conducted on this instrument. Results are given in the ‘Notes’ field.]

References

Events