Frank King has submitted details of five dials to the 2020 BSS Sundial Design And Restoration Awards
These five very different dials were made over the last five years
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- An Islamic inspired horizontal sundial:
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- A portable stereographic sundial on the end-flap of a book
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- A horizontal garden sundial
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- A vertical wall sundial
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- A portable stereographic sundial printed on a face mask
Read on for more details of each of these dials.
Submission 1 – An Islamic inspired horizontal sundial
- Name:
- Cardozo Kindersley Workshop, Cambridge, U.K.
- Type:
- Islamic inspired horizontal sundial
- Year:
- 2016
- Materials:
- Carrara Marble dial plate and gold-plated brass gnomon
- Location:
- Saudi Arabia
- Size:
- Diameter 500 mm
- Delineation:
- Frank H. King
- Reference:
- Frank King, ‘A New Islamic-Inspired Sundial’, BSS Bulletin, 28(iii), 21 (September 2016). The photograph above was the cover photograph of issue 28(iii).
- Notes:
- The ornamentation on the dial plate reflects Islamic art and the design of the gnomon support is seen on ancient Islamic sundials. The Ω shape symbolises a Mihrab and the arrow indicates the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca. The central region shows Babylonian hours from 1h to 12h and Italian hours from 12h to 23h.
Submission 2 -A portable stereographic sundial on the end-flap of a book
- Name:
- Cardozo Kindersley Workshop, Cambridge, U.K.
- Type:
- Portable stereographic sundial on the end-flap of a book
- Year:
- 2019
- Material:
- Card, the top and bottom edges of the book’s front cover serve as gnomons
- Size:
- 190 mm × 80 mm
- Location:
- Portable but for a latitude close to 52.2° North
- Delineation:
- Frank H. King
- Reference 1:
- Frank King and Lida Lopes Cardozo Kindersley: Sundials: Cutting Time (2019), Cardozo Kindersley, Cambridge, pp 123-129.
- Reference 2:
- Ben Jones, Book Review, BSS Bulletin, 31(i), 39 (March 2019).
Submission 3 – A horizontal garden sundial
- Name:
- Cardozo Kindersley Workshop, Cambridge, U.K.
- Type:
- Horizontal garden sundial
- Year:
- 2020
- Materials:
- Slate dial plate and gold-plated brass gnomon
- Size:
- Diameter 400 mm
- Location:
- Rutland
- Delineation:
- Frank H. King
- Note:
- The reflection hints that the gnomon is transparent and that we are seeing through it to the morning hour lines on the other side, but look closely at the grey circle within the sunburst. This is broken by the thickness of the gnomon which gives the game away!
Submission 4 – A vertical wall sundial
- Name:
- Inscriptorum, Sundborn, Sweden
- Type:
- Vertical wall sundial
- Year:
- 2018
- Materials:
- Trespa™ dial plate and gold-plated brass nodus and nodus support
- Size:
- 1475 mm × 1068 mm
- Location:
- South Cambridgeshire
- Delineation:
- Frank H. King
- Inscription:
- This dial commemorates the silver wedding of the clients. The inscription gives the date of their wedding with their initials on either side. A cockerel stands on the sunrise end of a broken horizon line and an owl stands on the sunset end.
- Reference:
- Newbury One-Day Meeting: The Practicalities of Trespa™, BSS Bulletin, 30(iv), 44–45 (December 2018).
- Note 1:
- Trespa™ is a cladding material used in the construction industry; it consists of a sheet of resin which is sandwiched between two decorative skins. A design is created on a mask and this is then placed over the decorative skin on one face of the resin. By abrading through this mask, the design is revealed as exposed resin which is later gilded by hand.
- Note 2:
- The principal design work was undertaken by Annika Petersson of Inscriptorum and much of the project management was undertaken by Bo Killander. Many others were involved in the fabrication: Mark Clarke of Sawston made the gnomon, which was gold-plated by Modern Metal Finishes Ltd of Burstwick; GoGlass of Cambridge prepared the mask and undertook the abrasion process.
Submission 5 – A portable stereographic sundial printed on a face mask
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- A portable stereographic sundial printed on a face mask
- Name:
- Frank H King, Cambridge
- Type:
- Portable stereographic sundial printed on a face mask
- Year:
- 2020
- Materials:
- Quilted three-layer fabric with a demountable gnomon made from a ball-point pen refill
- Size:
- Diameter of the horizon circle 100 mm
- Location:
- Portable but for a latitude close to 52.2° North
- Delineation:
- Frank H. King
- Reference:
- Frank H. King, ‘A Sundial Face Mask’, BSS Bulletin, 32(iii), 38–40 (September 2020).
- Note:
- In use, the dial requires a gnomon. The dial must be horizontal and the gnomon must be vertical. It is possible to use the dial while still wearing it (see middle photograph). For higher precision use, the material may be stretched over a compact disc and clipped to it (see right-hand photograph). The face mask was manufactured by Bags of Love, U.K. who also printed the design.