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.
GSS Category: Horizontal Dial; Dial Date; C16 Horizontal Sundial
GAUDIUM SUB SOLE . SUNDIALS . MEDIEVAL TO MODERN 