Dear Sara, It would be good to see a photograph but, from your description, this/these sound very like the kind of sundial that was almost mass produced in England in the 1920s. The old dates were not in intended to be fraudulent but to add an element of quaintness.
Very best wishes Frank On Mon, Mar 16, 2020, 04:41 Schechner, Sara <sche...@fas.harvard.edu> wrote: > Hi Friends, > > > > I have come across two sundials having the same strange motto and both > marked 1671. One is described in *The Teesdale Mercury*, Sept. 8, 1920 > under local news. I transcribe it here: > > > > Mr. Ingram Dawson, of Oak Bank, is the owner of a quaint old sun dial, > dated 1671, and bearing the following inscription, reminding the passers-by > of the flight of time and the uncertainty of life, a favourite subject of > dial-makers :-- > > Arise, my friends : no time to dream. > > Thou art passing hence. Ere the sunray’s beam. > > As the day runs. So your death comes— > > Ye time and hour, ye knoweth not. > > > > Note: The paper probably meant the locale Oaks Bank, which is near > Teesdale, County Durham, England. > > > > The second example is in private hands. It has the same poem but varies > in spelling and punctuation. It may be a copy of the first one. I suspect > it is not from 1671. I dare say that the first may also be circa 1900 and > not 1671, but I have not seen it. > > > > Does anyone know the current location of the Oaks Bank dial (if it > survives)? > > Has anyone seen any other sundials similar to these two? > > Does anyone know a source for this inscription (aside from the reference > to Matthew 25:13--Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the > hour)? > > > > I look forward to any leads you can give me. > > > > Stay safe in these days of the coronavirus! > > Sara > > > > *Sara J. Schechner, Ph.D. * > > David P. Wheatland Curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific > Instruments > > Lecturer on the History of Science > > Department of the History of Science, Harvard University > > Science Center 251c, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 > > Tel: 617-496-9542 | Fax: 617-495-3344 > > sche...@fas.harvard.edu | @SaraSchechner > > http://scholar.harvard.edu/saraschechner > > http://chsi.harvard.edu/ > > > --------------------------------------------------- > https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial > >
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