Sundial Rededication
A sundial that was originally purchased by the 1910 class of Springfield (Ohio) High School and which adorned the original high school grounds for decades was recently refurbished and rededicated at the new Springfield High School.
Even though the dial adorned the school grounds for much of the 20th century, it eventually found its way into storage, where it remained until it was recently uncovered.
Unfortunately, a heavy patina on the copper dial rendered it nearly unreadable. So, the talents of retired engineer Don Pyles (class of '48) were required, who, after some initial experimentation, succeeded in restoring the dial's original appearance.
With a donation of approximately $1000, from the class of 1959, to cover some of the costs associated with installing it at its new location (e.g. to purchase a new pedestal), it is hoped future generations of high schoolers will continue to find the dial a unique and memorable gathering spot.
Read more at: http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/springfield-news/springfields-sundial-will-be-rededicated-1166758.html
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Rare Sundial Sold
http://www.christies.com/A rare stone, polyhedral sundial discovered in England, and thought to date from the Scottish renaissance, sold April 7, 2011 for £16,250 ($26,500) at Christie's South Kensington, London.
The sundial discovered in 1974, and thought to date from the Scottish renaissance, went on the auction block this April as part of Christie's Travel, Science and Natural History sale in London. The dial is made of stone and technically described as a polyhedral dial, with several independent sundials arranged on different facets of the stone. Pre-auction estimates placed a value somewhere between £7000 and £10,000 ($11,400 and $16,300) but sold for nearly three times the initial estimate.
It is only by chance this dial was rescued from a potentially less illustrious end. The original owner found it partially buried in the ground in Herfordshire England, dug it up and used it as a garden ornament, even going so far as to grow strawberries in the scaphe dials (the semi-spherical "bowls" seen on the vertical faces in the image). After accompanying the owner during several house moves, a sundial enthusiast happened to see the unusual object and recognized it for the rarity that it is. A technical analysis of the dial locate its origin somewhere just south of Edinburgh sometime around 1630 to 1730. In the past twenty years, only two other examples of this kind of dial have come onto the market.
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