Flints Auctions Ltd
Lot 39
A Rare Five-scale Silver Pocket Sundial by Michael Butterfield, c.1690, French, finely engraved octagonal dial plate with foliate decoration and five hour bands for different latitudes, 49, 46, 43, 40 and 37 degrees north, finely engraved bird gnomon with scale divided by degrees 30 to 50, compass with all 32 points marked, cardinal and quadrantal points marked by French initials, compass offset approximately 12 degrees west for magnetic variation, compass base marked 'Premier Cadran' and carrying a table of latitudes continued on the dial-plate back, Paris 48.51, Brest 48.23, Haure de Grace 49.30, St Malo 48.38, Boulogne 50.44, Dieppe 49.57, Cherbourg 49.38, DunKuerque 51.2, 2 (i.e. 2me Cadran) Lyon 45.46, Nantes 47.15, Belle Isle 47.15, La Rochelle 46.11, Bordeaux 44.50, Rochefort 45.56, 3 (i.e. 3me Cadran) Emisterre 43.41, Marseille 43.20, Braga 41.4, Rose 44.20, Bayonne 43.30 Toulon 43.6, 4 (i.e. 4me Cadran) Porto 41.18, Lisbonne 38.40, Barcelonne 41.26, Maiore 38.57, 5 (i.e. the highly unusual 5me Cadran) St Vincent 36.37, Gibalterre 35.40, Malaga 36.24, Alicant 38.10, Cadis 36.16, length 6.2cm. Note: This exceptionally finely engraved example must have been a special commission for someone who lived or travelled to the far south of the Iberian Penninsular. See Sundials at Greenwich, Hester Higson, Oxford University Press 2002, pp91ff. for a detailed description of the usual three and four scale dials.
