{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O299169"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O299169/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011FC2517/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011FC2517/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2011FC2517","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011FC2518","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011FC2519","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011FC2640","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O299169/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O299169","accessionNumber":"A.52-1923","objectType":"Sundial","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This folding compass and dial was likely made in the seventeenth century, probably in Dieppe. This compass is made in ivory, engraved in black, with brass fittings. The outside of this compass is fitted with a dial of rococo form in pewter, mounted on purple silk. At the back is a dial engraved. The interior is fitted with a dial in pewter with circular pointer, and a compass, the glass and needle of which are missing; at the back is a table of latitudes in paper, printed in black. These sundials were portable and essential for accurate time-keeping, and would have beed used by merchants, sea captains, travellers, and indeed anyone who wished to know the time, in the days before accurate pocket watches or of course wrist watches. They relied on measuring the sun’s changing direction in the sky, indicating the hour of the day through the angle of the shadow cast by the gnomon, which was the string in the hinged portable sundials. In order to work correctly the direction dials das to be properly aligned, and for this reason such portaqble sundials needed to incorporate magnetic compasses.\r\nIvory was a suitable material for a number of reasons: it was not heavy, did not warp as easily as wood, and its light colour and realtive softness meant that it was easy to inscribe. Such objects were produced from the fifteenth century up to the early twentieth.\r\n","physicalDescription":"Folding compass and dial. The outside is fitted with a dial of rococo form in pewter, mounted on purple silk; at the back is engraved a dial. The interior is fitted with a dial in pewter with circular pointer, and a compass, the glass and needle of which are missing; at the back is a table of latitudes in paper, printed in black.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"brass","id":"AAT10946"},{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"},{"text":"pewter","id":"AAT10979"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"engraved","id":"AAT53829"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Ivory panels, hinged and engraved, partly painted, with brass and pewter fittings, string and inked paper","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Scientific instruments","id":"THES49042"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2011FC2517","2011FC2518","2011FC2519","2011FC2640"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"006","id":"THES395465"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Sundial","id":""}],[{"text":"Compass","id":"AAT196707"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Dieppe","id":"x34927"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1650 - ca. 1700","earliest":"1645-01-01","latest":"1704-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Mrs Ellen Hearn, Villa St Louis, Menton in 1923; this and other objects presented at the same time were labelled as the Alfred Williams Hearn gift.","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"when closed","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"8.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Given by Mrs Ellen Hearn, in 1923; This and other objects presented at the same time were labelled as the Alfred Williams Hearn gift.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Folding compass and sundial, ivory, engraved in black with brass fittings, France (Dieppe), ca. 1650-1700","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Longhurst, Margaret H. <font -u>Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory.</font> London: Published under the Authority of the Board of Education, 1927-1929, Part II, p. 83"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Dunn, Richard. Scientific Instruments at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London: a Provisional Inventory, <font -u> Bullentin of the Scientific Instrument Society.</font> 79, 2003, pp. 6-14"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Lloyd, S. A. <font -u>Ivory Diptych Sundials, 1570-1750</u>, Cambridge, Mass., London, 1992"},{"reference":{"text":"Trusted, Marjorie, <u>Baroque & Later Ivories</u>, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2013","id":"AUTH329728"},"details":"p. 404","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Trusted, Marjorie, <u>Baroque & Later Ivories</u>, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2013, p. 404, cat. no. 400"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["A.52-1923"],"accessionNumberNum":"52","accessionNumberPrefix":"A","accessionYear":1923,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-11-13","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":true}}