Object Description
A FINE 18TH CENTURY GILT BRASS AND SILVER POCKET SUNDIAL WITH TRAVELLING CASE, c. 1750.
A richly engraved gilt brass and silver German equinoctial sundial, monogrammed on the back IGV (for Johann Georg Vogler). The octagonal gilt brass base has a glazed silver compass rose showing a magnetic variation of a few degrees west. The base plate, resting on the bottom of the compass box, has a hinged chapter ring with a collapsible gnomon. There is a silver sectorial scale (0-80°) to set the local latitude by moving the chapter ring up or down. The chapter ring runs from III to IX, roughly the hours of daylight in summer. The time is indicated by the shadow of the gnomon on the chapter ring.
The sundial comes with its original cardboard and leather travelling case.
The maker, Johann Georg Vogler, brother of Andreas Vogler, also a sundial maker, was born in Unterthingau in South Bavaria (not far from the Austrian border) in 1720 and moved to Augsburg for work. He worked in a sawmill and made sundials next to his regular job. He died in 1745.
Dimensions: 52x50x12 mm; height with gnomon up at 51° (roughly London latitude) 42mm