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Compass dial for latitude 49° North. The dial is set over the compass in a padouk-wood box. The dial-plate consists of a brass ring with an hour scale and the remainder of the plate is open (apart from the gnomon supports) to reveal the compass. The hour scale is numbered clockwise IIII-XII, I-VIII, with some rather erratic orientation of the numbers. The letter 'B' is punched on the meridian line. The simply shaped gnomon is hinged and folds flat when not in use.
The compass consists of printed and painted card. It has a decorated compass rose for all 64 points, with isosceles triangles for 32 points. The cardinal points are marked by German names and painted red (North is further indicated by a fleur-de-lys). The magnetic variation scale is painted yellow and divided 30°-[0°]-30° around North. The replacement needle is blued for North and surmounted by a brass pivot. There is a glass plate over all.
The use of padouk wood (an expensive kind of hardwood from the Burmese padouk tree) is unusual, as boxwood and fruit woods are much more common in the construction of sundials. The latitude 49° North suggests a South German origin for the dial, perhaps Nuremberg.
For more information regarding this dial please refer to the OUP & NMM catalogue, 'Sundials at Greenwich'.
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