Year 2005

Work of our members

Combined horizontal and vertical sundial

The photograph below shows a combination of a horizontal and a vertical sundial sharing one style.
This sundial, too, came into being as I was carving along.

When the printing establishment across the street was dismantled, I found an old, worn-out lithography stone in the skip.
A lithography stone is very finely structured German limestone, ideal for being given a second life by traditional stone dressing.

I designed the horizontal pattern first, and this fixed the dimensions of the vertical sundial.

It was only later when I realised that it would have been nice to cut a north dial on the back, because these are quite rare.
The lesson I learned was this: design the north dial first, this fixes the style implant for the vertical dials, and that in turn the style implant for the horizontal.

The hour lines are V-shaped and read local apparent time for 52 degrees north latitude.
The numerals are therefore Roman. To avoid repetition, and to lend the whole a certain sobriety, even numbers are on the horizontal dial face, and odd on the vertical.

See also the construction description in
Article of the month, 2005 archives, month 09.