This dial is made by ivory layers on an octagonal block of wood. The top of the dial has a compass (glass, needle and ring missing) decorated with four putti. On the sides of the compass are sun and moon effigies, and below is a pin gnomon dial indicating Italian hours from 12 to 22 and Babylonian hours from 1 to 12. Below the pin is the signature and date 'PAVLVS REINMAN NORIMBERGAE 1441' (the style of the date is characteristic of a later period).With one exception, all the octagonal faces have wire gnomon dials. The first of the octagonal faces is missing its wire. It marks common hours from 6 to 12 to 6, and is inscribed 'MITTAG', with the date 1597.
The dial on the second face indicates common hours from 4 to 12 to 2. The third face indicates 'AVFGANG', with common hours engraved from 4 to 10. The fourth face indicates common hours from 4 to 9, and the fifth face has a pin gnomon dial indicating common hours from 4 to 8 twice, and is inscribed 'MITTERNACHT'. The maker's mark (a crown) is punched twice on this face. The sixth face indicates common hours from 3 to 8, and the seventh is engraved 'NI{E}DERGANG' with hours marked from 2 to 8. The eighth and last face indicates common hours from 10 to 12 and from 1 to 8.
The dial rests on four bun feet, one of which is missing.
The instrument was bequeathed by Octavius Morgan, and is described in F. A. B. Ward, A Catalogue of European Scientific Instruments in the Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities of the British Museum (London, 1981), p. 32, no.66.
Ilaria Meliconi
