On Thu, 2 Jul 1998, Robert E. Shapiro wrote: > I am researching a small (8 inch diameter) engraved-brass horizontal > garden sundial. It is dated 1742, signed "John Jones", inscribed "Tyme > Flyes", and has a gnomon angle off of the plate of 52 degrees. Does anyone > have any information as to whether a "John Jones" was a dial maker in > England in the mid-eighteenth century? Thanks very much in advance. > > Bob Shapiro > There are no less than six John Jones listed in Gloria Clifton's 'Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851', all from the eighteenth or nineteenth century. None listed as selling dials, but it's quite possible that at least one of them did. However, I would be extremely surprised to find a genuine eighteenth century instrument with this sort of motto on it. These were mostly used in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and are a common sight on fakes.
Hester Higton
