PAUL HOWARD MANSHIP (1885-1966)

Cast in an edition of ten, Day and the Hours—Sundial may have been designed specifically for Edwin and Sarah Porter Holter of Mt. Kisco, New York, the original owners of the present example. Paul and Isabel Manship were close friends with the lawyer and his wife, and according to correspondence between the families, the Manships named their daughter Sarah after Mrs. Holter. Manship frequently designed sculptures for specific gardens, and the other casts of Day and the Hours—Sundial may very well have been created in response to requests following the June 1920 publication of the Holters' sculpture in House and Garden magazine. The present example has descended in the Holters' family for the past century.

The central female figure of the sculpture recalls an Indian bodhisattva, and dancing figures adorn the halo-like mandala around her. Greek-inspired ornamental borders divide the sections of the sculpture, and the artist's interest in astrology is represented by the twelve signs of the zodiac depicted in low relief along the base.