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Lot 61
A stone polyhedral dial
SCOTTISH, LATE 17TH CENTURY
Closed6 April 2011
Price Realised
GBP 16,250
More Information
Specialist note
Rigorous study has been carried out on this sundial boss, and will appear in Bishop & Davis Bulletin of the British Sudial Society (forthcoming) 2011.
Analysis of the dial projections has suggested a latitude of 55° 48', just south of Edinburgh, fitting with this style of obelisk multiple dial common in Scotland circa 1630-1730. The presence of London, Acra, Ierus[alme], [R?]ome, Paris, Tangier, Madera [sic] on the dials is of interest: Acra was one of the sites on the Guinea coast specified in the Charter of the Royal African Company in 1672.
The boss was discovered by the present owner, half-buried in the ground at Walton Lodge, Great Amwell in 1974, was recently identified as part of a Scottish renaissance sundial, the rest of the obelisk is unlocated. It is the find location that provides us with the final clue as to its possible manufacture: Walton Lodge was the one time residence of the Mylne family. Robert Mylne (1633-1710) was the last Master Mason to the Crown of Scotland. His uncle John Mylne (1611-1667) being responsible for the earliest dated dial of this type at Drummond Castle (1630).
Analysis of the dial projections has suggested a latitude of 55° 48', just south of Edinburgh, fitting with this style of obelisk multiple dial common in Scotland circa 1630-1730. The presence of London, Acra, Ierus[alme], [R?]ome, Paris, Tangier, Madera [sic] on the dials is of interest: Acra was one of the sites on the Guinea coast specified in the Charter of the Royal African Company in 1672.
The boss was discovered by the present owner, half-buried in the ground at Walton Lodge, Great Amwell in 1974, was recently identified as part of a Scottish renaissance sundial, the rest of the obelisk is unlocated. It is the find location that provides us with the final clue as to its possible manufacture: Walton Lodge was the one time residence of the Mylne family. Robert Mylne (1633-1710) was the last Master Mason to the Crown of Scotland. His uncle John Mylne (1611-1667) being responsible for the earliest dated dial of this type at Drummond Castle (1630).