Diptych sundial with file-axis in engraved ivory with red an - Lot 122

Diptych sundial with file-axis in engraved ivory with red and black highlights, glass, brass. On the cover, a sixteen-way compass rose in a foliate scroll frame, vertical table, sundial scale, months represented by zodiac symbols above the hour sequence VI-XII-VI, subdivided into quarter hours, plumb line hole, horizontal table incorporating a compass with Latin abbreviations for the four cardinal points, surrounded by a dial showing the hours 4-12-8 and a quarter-hour division; on the reverse, lunar clock with the 29 days of the moon's orbit, double scale from 1 to 12 hours and rotating disc with brass pointer, foliate scrolls. Signed and dated LINHART MILLER 1611. Nuremberg, Leonhart Miller (1580 - 1653), 1611 H. 9.1 cm - W. 5.7 cm - D. 1.8 cm Gross weight: 112.1 g (slight accidents) Leonhart Miller, a member of an illustrious family of Nuremberg compass makers, was in business from about 1602 to 1652. Similar folding sundials are preserved in prestigious institutions such as the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford, the Landesmuseum Württemberg in Stuttgart, the Deutsches Museum in Munich and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. A remarkable example, a diptych sundial signed Leonhart Miller and dated 1649, is in the collections of the Science Museum, London (inv. 1938-414). Two other comparable sundials, also signed Leonhart Miller and dated 1636 and 1645 (the second very similar), are in the collections of the Huelsmann Foundation in Bloomington, USA. CIC certificate dated October 7, 2024 Book consulted : - D. Syndram, Wissenschaftliche Instrumente und Sonnenuhren. Kunstgewerbesammlung der Stadt Bielefeld /Stiftung Huelsmann, Munich, 1989, pp. 91-94, cat. 19 and 20.