Seems to be some type of tiny six above and between thre p and the a on word pass. SoSomething else definitely underneath the letters as well. I just canāt make them out. Theyāre too worn off.
it isnāt incredibly heavy. Itās only 600 g however, the reason I thought I was seeing the steel was because I was scrubbing the crap out of it, and it didnāt seem to be scratching. LOL Iām new to vintage stuff. I donāt sell often man. I truthfully hope this isnāt worth something and I didnāt ruin it.
If this were sterling silver (worth a lot) or just silverplate (worth far less), the tarnish would be black, not brown, and there would be some fairly obvious markings on the back (probably not on the face), showing at least a makerās name or logo.
If the date is accurate, itās too old to be stainless steel, by over 50 years. So what is it made out of? Canāt really say. If a magnet sticks to it, itās iron or steel - no other common metals are magnetic.
ETA: I also think it would be extremely unlikely that something that was made for use in the garden would be silver or silver plated. Not a good choice for outdoor use.
Yes, I was thinking all the same things you guys are which has me so confused thatās why I hopped on this website to try to figure it out. I suppose, after learning about sundials more, it might not be for the garden because the sun in the middle acts like a compass Sundial. However, that might explain why it was so so so dirty due to being outside and someoneās garden yard sale. I found it at
I will upload a picture of the back and some closer pictures of the black markings that are stained on it after I got rid of all the weird oxidized stuff on it that resembled a bronze color: which I thought it was when I bought it. But it was definitely not a coding. It was oxidization. It was just like falling off of it. Which is what made me want to start cleaning itšµāš« the ocd kicked in hard
A magnet doesnāt stick to it or even try to. It doesnāt have a super light ting when you tap it. But It only weighs 600 g. Which seems to me like it would be way too light for silver however, it is very thin. Thereās some very very very faded away stamped numbers by the Roman numerals, and a lot of other small markings I really canāt make out because theyāre so washed away by age I assume?
Itās a US sundial with a 20th century date on the bottom and coated with something to make it look like weathered brass or gold, which you have now partially removed. Probably fairly easy to finish removing the rest and re-coat it if you wish to. I cannot tell you who made it and nor could a google search which made me feel better. There are older dials that come up from time to time:
Hereās an 17th century one at Bonhams:
and another coated modern one which may inform you on what yours was intended to look like:
Silver sundials exist but they are usually smaller and made for the pocket rather like pocket watches. They are fairly rare and go for seven figures:
Ah, I mis-read that! It is, indeed, 1959, rather than 1859. The base metal is undoubtedly a very inexpensive alloy of some sort. In short, giftware.
Love the auction listing! I grew up in Mt. Kisco, NY. Its main claim to fame is the house that appeared in Ragtime. A Victorian extravaganza, walking distance from where I lived.
I forgot to mention when you buy a sundial make sure you get sold one that correctly tells your local standard time. You will need to know your latitude for dial position and longitude to determine the correction (time zone offset) between your dial and the time zone meridian usually set every 15 degrees of longitude. The UK dials are set for too far north for the US and sometimes too far south for Canadian. If you want one for the Antipodes then a whole different set of calculations are required.
You can see why the British government offered John Harrision, Ā£10,000.00 for a clock that did much of the work
Harrison received the interim payment of Ā£10,000 in 1765 (US$448,677.78 today) for his marine chronometer as a partial award for solving the problem, but he was not paid the full Ā£20,000 prize. This interim payment was part of the new Longitude Act,1765, which required his clock to undergo further testing and reveal the methods of his chronometerās construction before the remaining half of the prize was awarded.
I once bought an older dial and went through the this exercise to correctly set it for the west coast around northern California only to find someone had run off with it a year later. So screw it down to the base, I suppose.
That number reflects my habit of counting the pennies (.00) so I donāt have to worry about the pounds. Or else it could be I just canāt count any more! Once again grateful for an attentive editor in the right time zone!
C
