Butterfield Sundial (1700s): Art, History and Details

Butterfield Sundial (1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Butterfield-type sundials are characterized by their adjustable gnomons, metal flaps that cast a shadow on the dial’s face to indicate the hour, and geographical indices. This sundial has a scale adjustable between latitudes of 40° to 60° north. The latitudes of 26 European towns are engraved on its back for quick reference. With an intricately engraved silver face, it would have functioned as a fashionable traveler’s accessory.

Object facts

• Title: Butterfield Sundial
• Date: 1700s
• Culture: France
• Type: Silver
• Technique: silver
• Dimensions: Overall: 7.7 x 7.4 cm (3 1/16 x 2 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1942.490

A detail from the museum

Butterfield-style sundials were named after Micheal Butterfield, an English scientific and mathematical instrument maker who worked in Paris between 1674 and 1724.

Collection credit

Gift of Henry W. Kent

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.