A chance find in a tiny hamlet on the French / Italian border: this rather lovely home-crafted sundial. In a simple unshowy way, it is designed with care and lends enchantment to its overall purpose. I enjoyed seeing the passage of (part of) the day being marked by this dial.
The inclusion of notably cheerful signs of the Zodiac adds to the charm.
The pretty gnomon has an ingenious simplicity. Altogether a delightful find.
GSS Category: Vertical Dial; Rustic Dial; Semi-circle dial; Sundial France
I recently met someone at a gathering of mutual friends, and we discussed sundials. He mentioned that he had an old dial in his garden, dated 1597 (the year of the first performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor). This was definitely a lead to take up.
PROVENANCE: The dial was bought in the 1950s in (probably) an antique shop in (possibly) Amersham. It was put on the pillar of an old birdbath, and remains in the same garden.
The dial is small, 4.25″ square. The photograph of the whole dial is just about clear enough to zero in on some of the details. I am hoping that the available clues will lead to ID of Tho. the maker and / or of Morris; and to the conclusion that the date is accurate [I do have in mind the generic chunky ‘genuine c17’ dials on eBay that in fact date from a rather more recent era].
I’d be pleased to have any information, advice, reaction, interpretation, wonderment or perplexity in relation to this dial. My email is sundials@gaudiumsubsole.org; or add a comment.
On the perimeter: Tho W S fecit (?) 1597
Nearer the centre: Morris and a word or name that starts or ends with W and S depending how one looks at it.
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.
All photos: Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour or OS online
LES CADRANS SOLAIRES: THE CERAMIC TILE SUNDIALS OF COARAZE, PROVENCE
The nine sundials shown below are in Coaraze, a small medieval ‘village perché’ (650m) in the Alpes-Maritimes, Provence, north of Nice. They include sundials by artistic polymath Jean Cocteau (poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, artist and filmmaker); Ponce de Leon; and Henri Goetz, among others. They are located in two places in the village (1) on the front and side walls of the Marie (2) at the top of the village on a south-facing walls in the square in front of the church. They need no interpretation by me: everyone who views these wonderful sundials will experience their own personal response to each one.
GRADE I † Early C12 origins; C13 chancel, tower; C14 / C15 transepts; other works then & later inc C18 spire, C19 restorations. A striking building in a small village just off the A354 Salisbury – Blandford Forum. Clock installed in honour of Winston Churchill 50.9754 / -1.9009 / SU070195
DIALS
All Saints is a multiple dial church, with 8 listed in the BSS records. My dial count is 9. It’s a fine church, and dial-hunting was an easy pleasure. I have decided to let the dials speak for themselves without undue commentary on individual characteristics unless called for. Below the dials is an excellent article by the Hampshire Field Club that analyses all you need to know about each dial, and in particular the locations (for which I lost my notes).
BSS RECORDS
GALLERY OF 8 + 1 DIALS
DETAILED IMAGES
DIAL 1
DIAL 2
DIAL 3
DIAL 4
DIAL 5
DIAL 6
DIAL 7
DIAL 8
DIAL 9
This dial is included in the BSS records (bottom row LHS)
Volume VII Part I.pdf
Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club, XV , Pt. 3, p. 27a.
GRADE I ❖ C12 Norman tower and north nave wall; C13 south aisle and chapel; C14 enlargement, chancel; restorations 1895 by S. Weatherley. Fine C13 font. Most unusual C14 Anchorite cell, definitely in use. Excellent graffiti, in particular several shields. Approved by PEV. Midway between Guildford and Dorking. 51.2191 / -0.463 / TQ074477
DIALS
As with many multiple scratch dial churches, there are differing estimates of the number of dials, in this case of between 7 and 11. Sources vary, as do the eras when researches were carried out: Victoria County History Surrey (1911); D Renn 1986 (detailed survey); BSS 2000 (images – Lester); 2008 (drawings – Wood). I have decided to lead with 8 dials that are (I think) indisputably the real thing. Each is headed by the relevant BSS diagram and all are close to the pre-porch doorway. The close-up photos say as much about each dial than I could usefully describe.
DIAL 1
DIAL 2
DIAL 3
DIAL 4
Unusually, this dial has 3 circles, and incorporates decorative compass work to form 2 petals.
DIAL 5
DIAL 6
DIAL 7
DIAL 8
A simple deeply-scored dial that cuts into a quatrefoil ‘4-leaf cover’ compass design, presumably apotropaic. The church has a great many protection marks of all kinds, together with several shields. I may feature a selection in due course.
DIALOGRAM
The 8 blue-ringed designs below are all dials. The arrowed 9th, LHS, is debatable – see below The arrows RHS indicate (1) probably one of many crosses; and (2) a mystery, see below.
DIAL 9?
Renn’s count of 10 dials includes this ‘lamda’ incision. When I photographed dial 7, only the top of the scar was included. I am a confirmed dial optimist, but it didn’t occur to me to photograph it separately / include it as a dial..
DIAL 10?
Perplexing. An afternoon dial. Noted in Renn’s survey, on which BSS record is based. Described as Inside church (inside S porch). E face of W jamb. Behind door frame. Lines 4. I didn’t find it. Unlike the impressive array of forward- facing dials in the porch, this one must be small, cut on an angle as Renn indicates, and of little use for marking the passage of the day.
ANNOTATED DRAWING
The green circles mark the uncertainties. There is also a suggestion that there were once 2 other dials, now extant (S chancel wall, E pilaster buttress).
REFERENCES
Victoria County History, Surrey, 3 (1911), 120
Renn DF: Scratch Dials in Surrey, Surrey Archaeological Collections, vol 77, 1986
LISTING II* ❖ C13, C15 and early C16, good Victorian and later restorations. A link to the well-presented history of the church and its context in the village is given below. One bell is of particular historical interest. A multiple scratch dial church: BSS records 7 from a 1994 survey. I feature 9 candidates below, of which 2 are probably not-a-dials, leaving 7. But are they the same 7, I wonder? 6m E of Trowbridge. 51.3209 / -2.1195 / ST917579
GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial; Multiple Scratch Dial Church
All photos: Keith Salvesen [
I am beginning to find my own photos borrowed for online use. I don’t really mind, especially for this sort of niche interest, but a link to this project might be good]
The origins of the Minster date back to the C8. The building seen today dates from early C12 with development during subsequent centuries. Leaving aside the merits of the splendid building, the impressively large stone block on the S side is unmissable. The plinth alone is 6′ high; S face is 4′ wide; E & W faces are 3′ wide. N face has an inscribed tablet only.
DIAL DATES
The images featured below give a good idea of each face, gnomon, and relative aspects, so I won’t go into more detail. However there is a conundrum about dates. There was at least one relocation of the dial, and areas of restoration / repair are evident. The inscription on N face is This ancient sun-dial was removed from the gable of the South transept at its restoration 1891 and was erected here 1894 George E Richards [and] Charles H Gush Churchwardens.
As seen today, the date 1676 is given top left of the south face on new stone. There is no date in the corresponding position on the right side. However in T G W Henslow’s delightful Ye Sundial Booke (1st ed 1914), his charming drawing shows the date 1732 in the top right of the south face with no date on the left side. And more confusingly, in the Wills’s cigarette card sundial series (1928, see below), both dates are shown.
Spetisbury Church as drawn by Thomas Rackett for the 2nd edition of Hutchings’ History of Dorset
ST JOHN THE BAPTIST . SPETISBURY . DORSET
GRADE 1 ✣ Late C12 / early C13 origins; west tower late C15 / early C16. Major mid C19 restorations from 1858 by T H Wyatt, and later works. 3m SE of Blandford Forum. 50.8258 / -2.13 / ST909029
TWO PROXIMATE DIAL-LIKE DESIGNS
The two incised stones are located either side of the drainpipe on S wall of the chancel. Both have 8 segments (as with a Saxon / Tide Dial). A gnomon hole is conspicuously absent from both. There’s no trace of filling. There are one or two pocks on each, but random and with no specific relation to the overall designs.
GLP in his comprehensive survey of Dorset church scratch dials concluded that the dials “…are just graffiti of unknown date”. He explains that he has included these near-matching designs since otherwise “they might be mistaken for genuine dials”.
Apotropaic symbols? These don’t conform to any mainstream style of protection mark. And they are not in a location that Evil would naturally choose to gain entry.
My own theory is that these 2 designs were scratched on adjacent dark stones during the lengthy C19 restoration period. Perhaps there was a small competition between 2 apprentice masons engaged on the work, or bored by it.
DIAL 1
The cruder of the two, with bent lines and an awkwardly gouged curving ‘noon line’.
DIAL 2
More carefully designed and executed than Dial 1, and with the hint of circle round it.
GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial; Church Graffiti circular pattern; False scratch dials
Padua . Palazzo della Ragione . Sundial . John Renner
PADUA . PALAZZO DELLA RAGIONE . SUNDIAL
A confident and assertive sundial to match the glory and prosperity of the city. The lines divide the hours from VIII to IV into quarters. Each has an arrowhead, with (?unusually) reversal of the ‘minor quarter’ arrows.
GNOMON
At first glance you may wonder why there’s just a dark splodge where one might hope to see a gnomon. It is the gnomon. In researching the dial I came across a really helpful photo by Richard Mortel* that reveals the gnomon to be the ‘pin-hole’ type, the effectiveness of which is clearly shown.
Padua . Palazzo della Ragione . Sundial Pinhole . Richard Mortel
The upper half of the dial has an angled line across the whole dial, leading from an indeterminate animal (in fact a sheep) to a set of scales: Aries and Libra in opposition (Note: this Zodiacal conjunction should not be investigated, for fear of unwanted advice about who you should be dating).
There is an additional aspect to this dial that I am currently researching. First of all I have to clear use permission, but I hope to add to write again soon about this splendid dial. The clue is ‘Meridian’.
Credits: John Renner for his excellent photos of this fantastic sundial taken recently; *Richard Mortel for his clear illustrative photo of the gnomon taken a while back (with apologies if I have wrongly taken it as CC / OS)
GAUDIUM SUB SOLE . SUNDIALS . MEDIEVAL TO MODERN 