diptych-dial; sundial; compass-dial; volvelle | British Museum

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diptych-dial; sundial; compass-dial; volvelle

Object Type: diptych-dial; sundial; compass-dial; volvelle
Museum number: 1855,1201.228
Description: Diptych-dial; ivory; filled in with colour; wegweiser with arrow index; vertical pin-gnomon dial showing Babylonian and Italian hours; holes inset for upper end of string gnomon; list of twenty-two European towns with their latitudes; horizontal dial for string gnomon; compass with mark for declination N15W; inscription; pin-gnomon scaphe-dial; signature; trade-mark of crown and wind symbols in compass well; volvelle for interconverting solar and lunar times: central rotating disc missing.
Producer name: Made by: Leonhard Miller
Production date: 1637
Production place: Made in: Nuremberg
Materials: ivory; brass
Dimensions: Height: 13 millimetres; Length: 114 millimetres; Width: 72 millimetres
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: The maker's mark on this instrument (of a crown and wind symbols) is different from the various forms of fleur-de-lys usually associated with the Leonhart Miller of Nuremberg known as a prolific maker of ivory diptych sundials, although his son Nicholas did use a crown as his maker's mark; see Gouk 1988, p. 61.
Bibliographic references: Ward 1981 / A catalogue of scientific instruments in the Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities of the British Museum (095)
Location: Not on display
Condition: Latest: 2 (Jul 2015); 3 (Mar 2017); 5 (Feb 2017) Weeping; 3 (1995)
Acquisition name: Purchased from: John Webb; Purchased through: Christie's
Previous owner: Previous owner/ex-collection: Ralph Bernal
Acquisition date: 1855
Department: Britain, Europe and Prehistory
Registration number: 1855,1201.228
Additional IDs: Miscellaneous number: BL.3958 (Bernal Collection)
Conservation: C&W Treatment