Hello Douglas, (c.c. the Sundial List and The Stained Glass List) What a surprise your letter was! How interesting! Bernhard Franz is one of my idols and is the unsung hero in the world of modern stained glass sundials but we hardly know anything about him. He was possibly the very first modern stained glass sundial maker in the world. And after John Oliver, he was the most prolific maker of stained glass sundials in the world. He also was the only modern designer of stained glass sundials who also made his own sundial windows. (Christopher Daniel designs them but doesn't make them). So he was a both dialist and a glazier. A very rare combination! I was told his house was destroyed in some disaster and that he died an unknown pauper shortly thereafter and that his stained glass sundials had to be sold so that his poor wife could pay the all the bills. I understand a few of them are for sale in the sundial shoppe in Basle Switzerland.
We really do not know for certain if Mr. Franz or Chris Daniel made the first modern stained glass sundials since we do not know the exact date of Franz's first stained glass sundial. But the information you sent is very useful and I'll ask Dave Bell to update it soon. Thank you! Yes! We are VERY interested in receiving the photos, literature and any more information you have on Bernhard Franz. The photos we currently have are of poor quality, but better than nothing. We'd love to get better photos and read those articles you mentioned. I'll return them of course! (I live in Arizona too (Tucson). Do you live in Tucson also? If so, I'll pick them up if you'd like, otherwise you can mail them to me at the address below.) I'm forwarding this letter to the Sundial and Stained Glass List discussion group, since I know several people there will be interested in your information, especially the German dialists and glaziers! Thank you so much, John John L. Carmichael Sundial Sculptures 925 E. Foothills Dr. Tucson AZ 85718 USA Tel: 520-6961709 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Websites: Sundial Sculptures: http://www.sundialsculptures.com Stained Glass Sundials: http://stainedglasssundials.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Douglas K. Stevenson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, August 14, 2004 3:43 PM Subject: Bernard Franz, Glassonnenuhren jlc: sorry, had typo'd your address the first time round. ds --------- Forwarded Message ---------- Subject: Bernard Franz, Glassonnenuhren Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2004 07:01:37 -0700 From: "Douglas K. Stevenson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: gary <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Dear Mr. Carmichael and dear Mr. Bell, My family and I have just moved to Arizona after 30 years in Germany (my .de email address is forwarded here). During that time, I became interested in antiquarian horology, subscribed to CLOCKS magazine, started reading Daniel's _Sundial Page_ column, and well, you can guess where this would go if it did. The short of it, however, is that in 1994 the Deutsches Uhrenmuseum in Furtwangen was displaying some of Bernhard Franz's "Glassonnenuhren" as he called them. After seeing them there, I wrote to him -- he was living in Quierschied -- and he kindly replied with a letter, as well as several (German) newspaper articles concerning himself and the stained-glass dials, two descriptions of these dials (one, and one-and-a-half singled-spaced typed pages) as well as 12 color slides of the dials. He hadn't been aware, by the way, of the UK dials I'd sent the slides on to Daniel (this also in 1994) but kept photo copies of them. I believe I also have one or two photos about of the dials in Furtwangen. Should you have any interest in this material, please let me know. I'd be please to send copies of the printed matter, but would ask that the photos be returned. With best regards, Douglas K. Stevenson email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [or] [EMAIL PROTECTED] tel: (623) 815 7102 ------------------------------------------------------- -
