Hi Ian
Very interesting story. The equatorial Tower Dial is a great sundial.
Regards,
Roderick Wall.
----- Reply message -----
From: "Ian Maddocks" <ian_maddo...@hotmail.com>
To: "sundial@uni-koeln.de" <sundial@uni-koeln.de>
Subject: Quick Sundial Quiz - What's the matter with this dial? (Tower Bridge
Equatorial)
Date: Fri, Dec 30, 2016 8:06 AM
hi folks
Here's your quick Christmas quiz - what is wrong with the sundial in the middle
of the attached screengrab from Instagram #sundial?
It's the famous equatorial dial near Tower Bridge in London....
Answer below.....
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The answer is that it's NOT actually the famous equatorial in London by Wendy
Taylor but a copy in Shanghai, China.
I regularly trawl through Instagram #sundial
(https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/sundial/) looking for new dials we
haven't recorded in the BSS Register. Back in September I saw the dial as you
see it in the screen grab. "It's the dial by Tower Bridge", I thought, "been
there, seen that" but something about the photo processing ("nice" HDR, ie not
over-done to my tastes) made me click through. "But hang on those aren't the
warehouses on the south side of the Thames , they're skyscrapers, it's tagged
Shanghai !" To see the original posting click
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ7UULOjxhs/?taken-by=gwctoo , though I originally
saw it 3 hours after it was posted when there were no comments.
I contacted Wendy Taylor via her website who confirmed it wasn't an official
copy. I managed to find its location and she started to work out what could be
done about it.
Although they don't have StreetView in China there are some privately uploaded
photospheres on Google Maps. The dial can be seen on the banks of the
Huangpu River in the following photosphere (yes it's all one link)
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@31.2289389,121.5018597,3a,75.1y,125.54h,87.11t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-3srhU91AL7E%2FV0MHA9iTjeI%2FAAAAAAAADDY%2FpbHLMS1yqpAywGmRoyiLM5U87B5eLItmACLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2F-3srhU91AL7E%2FV0MHA9iTjeI%2FAAAAAAAADDY%2FpbHLMS1yqpAywGmRoyiLM5U87B5eLItmACLIB%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i8704!8i4352
Anyway I had forgotten about all it this but Wendy has just been in touch with
the end to the story.... At the end of November the story was run in The
Independent UK newspaper. Second British artist accuses China of copying
work after statue 'identical' to London sculpture spotted in Shanghai :
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/china-copies-sculpture-british-wendy-taylor-timepiece-tower-bridge-london-shanghai-anish-kapoor-a7441076.html
then just four days later Chinese authorities destroy Shanghai sculpture
exposed as copy of British artist's iconic London work :
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/china-copy-art-sculpture-shanghai-london-wendy-taylor-timepiece-tower-bridge-sundial-destroyed-a7448326.html
It also was mentioned in the Shanghai Daily 'Wonderful news' for UK
sculptor
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/metro/society/Wonderful-news-for-UK-sculptor/shdaily.shtml
and has been picked up by other media , see
https://www.google.co.uk/#q=wendy+taylor+shanghai+sundial
Wishing you all a Happy New Year
Ian Maddocks
Chester, UK
53°11'50"N 2°52'41"W---------------------------------------------------
https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
