{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O311030"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O311030/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011FC2512/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011FC2512/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2011FC2512","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011FC2642","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O311030/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O311030","accessionNumber":"A.46-1923","objectType":"Compass","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This folding compass and dial was made in Germany (Nuremberg) in 1562 and is attributed to Georg Hartmann (1489-1664). The outside of the compass is engraved with a dial and a table of latitutes, while the interior is engraved with various calculating diagrams containing a compass, sunk under glass, the needle of which is missing. \nHartmann was active in Nuremberg from 1518 onwards. He apparently provided the technical designs for sundials, as shown by different engravings depicting diptychs produced by him, signed and dated between 1535 and 1553. 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 engraved with a dial and a table of latitudes; the interior with various calculating diagrams containing a compass, sunk under glass, the needle of which is missing. It is partly painted and gilded, with a string and gilt brass fittings. Inscribed. Inside the compass the names of sixteen cites are inscribed: Danzig, Lübeck, Antwerp, Prague, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Vienna, Paris, Salzburg, Milan, Leon, Trent, Venice, Florence, Naples and Lisbon, as well as Portugal and Sicily. Another inscription at the bottom. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Hartmann, Georg","id":"AUTH330327"},"association":{"text":"sculptor","id":"x43862"},"note":"attributed to"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"},{"text":"brass","id":"AAT10946"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Ivory, engraved and coloured, partly painted and gilded, string and gilt brass fittings; glass cover","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Scientific instruments","id":"THES49042"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2011FC2512","2011FC2642"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"CA010","id":"THES388292"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Compass","id":"AAT196707"}],[{"text":"Sundial","id":"AAT41614"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Nuremberg","id":"x29057"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1562","earliest":"1562-01-01","latest":"1562-12-31"},"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":"5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'NORENBERGE FACIEBAT. ANNO DOMINI.MDLXII'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"on the dial"},{"content":"'1836 Pietro Draghi' [and a 'z' a six-pointed star and a small circle]","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"[presumably a previous owner]","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"on the exterior panel of the underside a scratched label \r\n[also stamped onto the same label]"},{"content":"'MORE. AB. ORTV. ET. OCASV'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"'for use from the east to the west'","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"at the bottom"}],"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 dial, ivory engraved and coloured, attributed to Georg Hartmann, Germany (Nuremberg), dated 1562.","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. 99"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Gouk, Penelope. <font -u>The Ivory Sundials of Nuremberg 1500-1700.</font> Cambridge, 1988"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Lloyd, S. A. <u>Ivory Diptych Sundials, 1570-1750</u>, Cambridge, Mass. - London, 1992"},{"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":"Trusted, Marjorie, <u>Baroque & Later Ivories</u>, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2013","id":"AUTH329728"},"details":"p. 406","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Trusted, Marjorie, <u>Baroque & Later Ivories</u>, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2013, p. 406, cat. no. 403"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"<b>Pointing the way </b>\n\r\nThink of this object as an old-fashioned smartwatch. Find your way with the round compass at the bottom and tell the time using the string, and sunlight, to make a sundial. \n\n<b>Folding compass and sundial </b>\r\nMade by Georg Hartmann \r\n1562 \r\nNuremberg, Germany \r\nGiven by Mrs Ellen Hearn \r\nMuseum no. A.46-1923 \n\n[Young V&amp;A, Imagine Gallery, Adventure, short object label]","date":{"text":"01/07/2023","earliest":"2023-07-01","latest":"2023-07-01"}}],"partNumbers":["A.46-1923"],"accessionNumberNum":"46","accessionNumberPrefix":"A","accessionYear":1923,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2022NG9324"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-09-19","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":false}}