ring-dial; finger-ring; sundial

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ring-dial; finger-ring; sundial

Object Type: ring-dial; finger-ring; sundial
Museum number: AF.1757
Description: The ring is engraved on the outside with the initials of the names of the months, and has a small applied shield with a stag rampant. The shield is surrounded by the initials 'H G' and 'V B'. The sliding central band of the ring has the sighting hole. A hand and a star are engraved next to the sighting hole. On the inside of the ring the hour marks are inscribed as individual dots, numbered with pairs of hours and the hour numerals from 4 to 12 to 8. There is a smaller ring for suspension. The equinoxes are at 10 March and 10 September approximately.
Production date: 16thC
Production place: Made in: Germany
Materials
Dimensions: Diameter: 25 millimetres; Width: 8 millimetres
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: Text from Dalton 1912, Catalogue of Finger Rings: Proc. Soc. Antiquaries of London, xv, p. 82. Information upon ring-dials will be found in the article above quoted. When in use, the hole in the moving ring is brought level with the month in which the observation is taken, and held towards the sun; the ray passing through it then falls upon the figure of the hour engraved on the inner side. It will be remembered that Shakespeare makes Touchstone the possessor of such a dial.
Bibliographic references: EPACT 1998 / EPACT: Scientific instruments of medieval and renaissance Europe (http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/epact/catalogue.php?ENumber=84484); Ward 1981 / A catalogue of scientific instruments in the Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities of the British Museum (162); Tait 1976 / Jewellery Through 7000 Years (430); Dalton 1912 / Franks Bequest Catalogue of the Finger Rings, Early Christian, Byzantine, Teutonic, Mediaeval and Later, Bequeathed by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, KCB, in which are included the other rings of the same period in the Museum. (1698)
Location: Not on display
Condition: Latest: 2 (Jul 2015)
Acquisition name
Previous owner
Acquisition date: 1897
Department: Britain, Europe and Prehistory
Registration number: AF.1757

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