This is a small dial that has recently come into my possession. It stands (temporarily) on our gnomon-less Barker pedestal dial. Is it:
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THE FRANCIS BARKER ‘LIBERTY’ PEDESTAL
As featured in the BBS Bulletin
CHÂTEAU de VAUVILLE . CONTENTIN . JARDIN BOTANIQUE
The Château dates from mid-C12. Thereafter – like many similar large houses in the region – it suffered many changes in fortune over the centuries. It has been described as ‘one of the finest examples of fortified architecture in the Nord-Cotentin‘. It is still in the ownership of the same family. During WW2 the house was pillaged and severely damaged. Restorations since then have resulted in a very fine building in lovely surroundings.
The splended gardens were created after the war by Eric Pellerin and feature a huge variety of the semi-tropical plants and trees that thrive on the western edge of the Cotentin coast.
ARMILLARY SPHERE
The sphere seems (to me, anyway) fairly complex, and rather than trying to interpret it I think that high resolution images taken from a number of angles is more useful. There is an engraved inscription that girdles the dial and includes personal tributes to Pellerin and others.
GSS Category: Armillary Sphere; French Sundial; Normandy Sundial; Botanical Garden Dial
JARDIN DE PRÉVERT . COTENTIN . MANCHE
This idiosyncratic garden is close to Port Racine in the NW corner of the Cotentin peninsular, in the Vallée des Moulins. There is a tumbling stream that at one time flowed past more than a dozen mills, of which some ruins remain. The garden was created in homage to the poet and screen-writer Jacques Prévert. After his death (1977), trees were planted by his wife, Yves Montand, Juliette Gréco, and Picasso among others, a quality tribute to his artistic achievements.
Amid the peaceful woodland bordering the stream are artfully twisting paths. These reveal clusters of metalwork sculptures, inscribed poems hanging from trees, and plenty of somewhat surreal creations. In amongst the foliage I spotted this sphere. Enjoy the poem.
An orange on the table Your dress on the rug And you in my bed Sweet gift of the present Freshness of the night Warmth of my life
GSS Category: Armillary Sphere; Sundial Art
All photos Keith Salvesen except JT (os)
ARMILLARY SPHERES
GUSTAV VIGELAND
VIGELAND-PARKEN OPEN AIR ART INSTALLATION
Gustav Vigeland (Thorsen) (1869 – 1943) was a Norwegian sculptor much admired for his creative imagination and productivity. His most notable work is the monumental ‘Vigeland Installation’ in the Frogner Park Oslo, compared to which his sundial is a footnote. Although generally acclaimed, Vigeland’s work is viewed by some as having uncomfortable connotations in several respects. The static interaction of the dozens of babies, children, women, and men might – nearly 100 years later – raise eyebrows. Having skimmed the topic I rather agree (despite being of Norwegian descent. Or because of it maybe).
The armillary sphere was installed in 1930, a distinctively Scandinavian variation from designs further south in Europe, in a good way. The heavily sculpted dais is a duodecagon showing the Signs of the Zodiac in bold (lumpen?) relief.
BENJAMIN WEGNER
The armillary sphere is located outside the Frogner manor house (now the City Museum) in the south of the park. Wegner aquired the parkland in 1836, and the sphere was probably installed the following year.
There is very little information about this dial online, and only one clear photo that I could find. As often, Wiki can help clarify obscurity:
The sundial is constructed as an open globe, where the meridians cast a shadow on sunny days onto the inner part of the globe, hitting the inside of the equator line and thus showing the time, specifically the astronomical solar time. Odd Gunnar Skagestad wrote in 2020 that the nearly 200-year-old sundial is greatly neglected and called for efforts to preserve it
GSS Category: Armillary Sphere; City Sundial; Norway Sundial
All Vigeland photos Camilla Pennant; Wegner Dial, ‘Vanasan’
All photo
TINTINHULL HOUSE (COURT) . SOMERSET
GRADE I ⚘ C17 Attractive small manor house with lovely gardens and a small arboretum. NT. Plenty of information online. Don’t miss St Margaret’s with its remarkable scaphe dial above the porch, and 6+ scratch dials – links below. 4m NW of Yeovil
ARMILLARY SPHERE
A fine armillary sphere surmounted by a charming pairing of an exotic galleon and a delicately stylised sun. The gardens as they are now were designed by Phyllis Reiss after she and her husband bought the house in 1933. She died in 1961, leaving the property to NT. My guess is that the dial dates to mid-1930 as the new gardens took shape.
TINTINHULL GARDENS . DECORATIVE FEATURES ON THE ARMILLARY SPHERE
LINK POSTS
TINTINHULL . ST MARGARET . MULTIPLE SCRATCH DIALS
TINTINHULL . ST MARGARET . TRIPLE POLAR SCAPHE DIAL
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GSS CATEGORY: Armillary Sphere; Equatorial Dial
All photos: Keith Salvesen
CORCIANO . UMBRIA . ARMILLARY SPHERE
Corciano is an attractive small town 12km west of Perugia, walled and with much of its medieval origins still evident. In contrast, the Commune has commissioned interesting modern projects, for example a residential complex designed by Renzo Piano and inspired by Rubik’s cubes.
The town has initiated an ambitious project, financed by the municipality, to make an itinerary that combines culture, history, astronomy, landscape and science and can be used free of charge for everyone: citizens, schools and tourists.
BORGO del SOLE
The Sundial Trail links 3 different kinds of sundial at sites carefully chosen for each type. These are an Armillary Sphere (Equatorial Dial); an Analemmatic Sundial; and a Ptolemaic Plinth in the Gardens. Other types of dial are planned.
GSS Category: Armillary Sphere; Sundial Italy
Photos: John Renner, with thanks
ARMILLARY SPHERES
A CONTRASTING PAIR DISPLAYED TOGETHER
A pair of armillary spheres dating to about 1700 show competing models of the universe. One has the Earth stationary at the center in the Ptolemaic system of the ancient Greeks. The other shows the later Copernican system, in which the sun is at the center and the Earth and the other planets revolve around it HoHS
The entire contents of Sandford Orcas Manor, a fine example of country house Tudor, have been auctioned following 4 days of viewings. The sale has generated much interest and excitement both locally and well beyond. Such a complete disposal – even the family Bible (1702) was included – is quite rare. The house dates from mid C16 and has been in the same family for 300 years. It has a reputation for being ‘the most haunted house in England‘. The task of gathering statistics to support this proposition must have been a nightmare.
Two sundials were sold and are now removed from the property. One is a conventional garden dial, gnomon-less, on a baluster stone pedestal. The other is an armillary sphere grandly resting on a substantial triple plinth and supported by a tall ironwork obelisk.
HORIZONTAL DIAL (C18) BY NAIRNE & BLUNT
Edward Nairne and Thomas Blunt established themselves in London as scientific instrument makers. They worked together between 1774 and 1793 and this dial must be from that period.
ARMILLARY SPHERE
GSS Categories: Horizontal Sundial; Garden Sundial; Pedestal Dial; Armillary Sphere
All photos Keith Salvesen except header, Dukes Auctioneers
ST GILES . ARMILLARY SPHERE
The armillary sphere is on the grassy area close to St Giles churchyard, where the road north forks towards Blenheim NW, and to Banbury NE. It was evening and rain had been pelting down. The way to a pub led me past the dial, and I was tempted to see what an iPhone camera would make of it.
The dial was given to The City of Oxford in 1986 by its twin city Bonn, and made by a local blacksmith (to Bonn, that is.)
BSS RECORD: Modern equatorial memorial dial in an armillary sphere in the churchyard. The dial is the equatorial ring of an armillary sphere. It shows 6am to 6pm with raised cast Roman hour numerals and half hour dots. The other two rings are vertical – a north-south meridian ring open on the south side and an east-west ring. The axial arrow forms the gnomon. There is no nodus. It is not adjustable for latitude. The dial is mounted on a small stone slab. There is a small plaque on the slab.
Margaret Stanier in her book on Oxford dials, calls it a fine bit of ironwork, with bold numerals, easy to read. She notes that the rings are positioned so that their shadows cannot obliterate that of the gnomon.
The experiment with a phone worked quite well, I think. The details are legible, possibly more so than photos taken in sunlight. And it makes a change.
GSS Category: Armillary Sphere; Modern Dial; Oxford Sundials
All photos: Keith Salvesen
SANTA MARIA NOVELLA . FLORENCE . ARMILLARY SPHERE
EGNAZIO DANTI* 1536 – 1586 (also, Ignazio), Dominican monk and polymath, became renowned for his wide learning and intellectual precision. He was a mathematician, cartographer, astronomer (some say ‘cosmographer’) to Cosimo I, and much more. There’s plenty about him – and indeed about his 3 very different dials at SMN – online.
Recommended sites for an informed overview of the dial include that of the Basilica itself SMN.IT; also ARTELEONARDO and ACCADEMIAGALLERY
For those wishing to dig deep into the complex analysis and the historical context of the dial, you can do no better than study the lead article by Simone Bartolini & Marco Pierozzi in the BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH SUNDIAL SOCIETY VOLUME 22(iv) – December 2010. You can download it.
ARMILLARY SPHERE
The armillary sphere consists of two perpendicular bronze circles with a diameter of 1.30 cm. The vertical one represents the meridian and indicates the exact moment when the sun is at its highest point, noon. On the equinox day, these two circles create a cross-shaped shadow, while elongated circle shadows are formed on other days. (AG)
REFORMATION OF THE CALENDAR
Danti’s sphere was installed on the S facade of the SMN in 1572. This device enabled him to determine the equinox precisely, and thus the true length of the year. Measurements the following spring confirmed the conjecture that the equinox was earlier than indicated by the Julian calendar, in fact by 11 days. As Wiki (always good on this sort of topic) puts it: The reforms of Julius Caesar in 45 BC put the Roman world on a solar calendar. This Julian calendar was faulty in that its intercalation still allowed the astronomical solstices and equinoxes to advance against it by about 11 minutes per year. Pope Gregory XIII introduced a correction in 1582; the Gregorian calendar was only slowly adopted by different nations over a period of centuries, but it is now by far the most commonly used calendar around the world.
MERIDIAN DIAL SMN Link to the article on Danti’s marvellous dial inside the Basilica
INSCRIBED TABLETS BELOW THE DIAL
GSS Category: Armillary Sphere; Spherical Dial; Astronomical Dial; Sundial Italy
All photos: Keith Salvesen except header (Wiki)
Ignazio Danti by Bartolomeo Passarotti (c1576-86). Source: Musée des beaux-arts de Brest
GAUDIUM SUB SOLE . SUNDIALS . MEDIEVAL TO MODERN 