Accession No

0551

Brief Description

octahedral dial; French; late 19th century

Origin

France

Maker

Class

dials

Earliest Date

1870

Latest Date

1900

Inscription Date

Material

ivory; metal (silver); glass

Dimensions

base d 80 mm; h 160 mm

Special Collection

Robert Whipple collection

Provenance

Purchased by Robert Stewart Whipple from Gertrude Hamilton (trading as 'Mercator'), Paris, in 04/1929.

Inscription

Description Notes

Turned ivory pillar on turned foot with regular octohedron set on one face, dials on the other 7 faces. Inset compass on the horizontal face; 4-point unlabelled silver rose offset 20˚ for magnetic variation. Silver gnomons for 48˚ N, (2 missing 16-4-1997). Base, pillar and octahedron unscrew. Ivory incised with lines and filled with ink to imitate aging- possibly a late 19th century reproduction. Compass glass cracked. Crack/slit on edge of base (12-1-2000).

Condition: fair.

References

Events