Fellow Shadow Watchers,
I have recently been sent a partial dial plate
which, it has been suggested, may be an early form of mass-production in
that the existing plate appears to be the area once contained within a
missing 'chapter ring'. The suggestion is that these plates were perhaps
made in batches with a removable border containing the hourlines and
numerals produced for each individual location. The gnomon is also
missing but its fixing holes and 'footprint' remain.
The plate measures approx 10" x 10" and has a central compass rose and
the inscriptions
"Meeke Londini Anno Dom 1640"
"So runs ye hours So wears ye daye
These moments measure life awaye"
The hand engraving is not of the highest order with a crude 'rope'
border. Four large fixing holes are set near the corners.
The dial is thought to have been brought to either..."Balcaskie in Fife
or to Kinross by Sir William Bruce in the second half of the 17th Century
to embellish his formal gardens there, for which he was a pioneer in
Scotland"
Would anyone care to comment on any of the above statements? In
particular I am anxious to know of any existing metalwork by Meeke so
that a new chapter ring and gnomon can be produced in a sympathetic style
as near as possible to the original. The new work would of course be
marked as additional.
Tony Moss
