Sundial, stone, northern France, late 15th century — view 1 of 2 — View 1 of 2 · Image: © Victoria and Albert Museum, London · original image source

View 1 of 2 · Image: © Victoria and Albert Museum, London · original image source

Instruments · Sundial

Sundial, stone, northern France, late 15th century

DocumentedDocumented from the holding institution's catalogue record.

Maker / attribution: Unrecorded in source
Date: late 15th century
Historical period: Renaissance Horology (1400 – 1600)
Country of origin: France
Place: France
Object type: Sundial
Materials / technique: Carved stone
Dimensions: Height: 76.2 cm; Width: 71.12 cm
Holding institution: Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Accession / object no.: 476-1905
Credit line: Given by J. H. Fitzhenry, Esq.

Record summary

Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number 476-1905), this is a sundial, made in France, dated late 15th century. The Atlas places it in the Renaissance Horology period (1400 – 1600) of its Instruments collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Carved stone. Recorded dimensions: Height: 76.2 cm; Width: 71.12 cm. The record is illustrated with 2 photographs.

Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.

Catalogue description

V&A — Summary

This sundial is made in France by an unknown artist in the late 15th century. It is supported by two angels. The dial is in the shape of a stone disc with the upper third cut off: it is numbered around the edge from 5 am to 7 pm. The gnomon is missing: there is a star shaped device in the centre, and a scalloped border. Below are two kneeling angels supporting the dial on their wings and holding between them a heraldic shield. The position of the numerals indicates that they were incised at a later date, when the dial was being used horizontally and in London, because the numerals are so placed that the dial could tell the correct time only if used horizontally and in the London area. If used vertically, as presumably was originally intended, the numerals would be differently arranged. There are traces of painted numerals (undecipherable) and these may be the original ones.

V&A — Physical description

Sundial supported by two angels. The dial is in the shape of a stone disc with the upper third cut off: it is numbered round the edge from 5 am to 7 pm. The gnomon is missing: there is a star shaped device in the centre, and a scalloped border. Below are two kneeling angels supporting the dial on their wings and holding between them a heraldic shield: a chevron, and a chief charged in the dexter canton with a mullet

V&A — Object history

The position of the numerals indicates that they were incised at a later date, when the dial was being used horizontally and in London. If used vertically, as presumably was originally intended, the numerals would be differently arranged. There are traces of painted numerals (undecipherable) and these may be the original ones. Given by J. H. Fitzhenry, Esq.

Historical context

Renaissance Horology (1400 – 1600)

Spring power makes clocks portable; Nuremberg and Augsburg produce the first watches; the Prague Orloj is built.

Instrument-making flourished in Nuremberg, Augsburg, Louvain and London: ivory diptych dials, astronomical compendia, astrolabes and nocturnals for wealthy patrons, navigators and scholars.

Read the period in the timeline More instruments from this period Earlier: Medieval Period

Atlas type guide

Sundials and solar time-finders

A sundial tells time from the position of a shadow cast by a gnomon or style. Because the sun's apparent motion depends on latitude, every fixed dial is laid out for a particular latitude, and portable dials either carry a latitude scale or are made for one region. Sundials show local apparent solar time, which drifts against mean (clock) time by up to about sixteen minutes over the year — the equation of time.

Portable dials were the pocket instruments of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Nuremberg and Augsburg workshops produced folding ivory diptych dials with inset compasses; English and French makers sold brass horizontal dials, ring dials and the Butterfield type; Japanese and Chinese makers had their own traditions of compass dials. After mechanical watches became reliable, dials remained in use for setting them, and nineteenth-century heliochronometers were built to correct directly for the equation of time.

What to look for

The latitude engraved on the dial plate or a latitude arc on the gnomon — it shows where the dial was meant to be used.
The type of hour lines: equal (equinoctial) hours, Italian or Babylonian hours counted from sunset or sunrise, or unequal temporal hours on early and Islamic instruments.
An inset magnetic compass and whether a magnetic-declination mark is drawn on its card — a useful dating clue because declination changes over time.
Maker's signatures and town marks: Nuremberg compass-makers (Kompassmacher) often struck a personal mark and the town's punch.
Additional scales such as lunar volvelles, wind roses, perpetual calendars or lists of cities with their latitudes.

Dating clues

Ivory diptych dials are characteristic of Nuremberg between about 1500 and 1700.
Butterfield-type dials with a bird-shaped adjustable gnomon point to Paris workshops from the late seventeenth century onward.
Equation-of-time tables engraved on the plate became common after the mid-seventeenth century, once pendulum clocks made the difference between solar and mean time obvious.

General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.

Mechanisms mentioned

No escapement or complication is named in the source record. See the encyclopedia for how such pieces work.

Record completeness

Maker or attributionNot in source
DateRecorded
Place or countryRecorded
MaterialsRecorded
DimensionsRecorded
Narrative descriptionRecorded
Inscriptions / marksNot in source
ProvenanceNot in source
Several photographsRecorded

Editorial status: Documented — facts as published by the source; not independently verified by Atlas editors.

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Sources & image rights

Record source: Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Image rights: © Victoria and Albert Museum (non-commercial terms) — permission review.

Images are hosted by the Atlas for study and credited to their owner. Rights holders may request correction, credit changes or removal via the editorial office.

Cite this record

"Sundial, stone, northern France, late 15th century." Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 476-1905. Catalogue record in The Horology Atlas, WatchMuseum.org, https://atlas.watchmuseum.org/museum/sundial-stone-northern-france-late-15th-century-e2c444.