SCOTTISH REGENCY BRONZE SUNDIAL, BY ALEXANDER ADIE, EDINBURGH
EARLY 19TH CENTURY
Estimate: £700 - £900
Auction: Session Two - Thursday 20th February at 10am
Description
the 15 ½ inch sundial plate engraved with 8 point compass rose, calendrical equation of time, hours marked with Roman numerals and divided by ten minute markers, pierced scrolling gnomon, signed ‘A. ADIE EDINBURGH’
Dimensions
39.5cm diameter
Provenance
The Murray family, formerly at Dollerie House, Crieff, Perthshire
Footnote
Note: Alexander Adie was apprenticed to his uncle the eminent Scottish instrument maker John Miller in 1789. In 1804 his uncle took him into partnership trading under the name Miller and Adie. The business continued until Miller's death in 1815. Adie then continued operating under his own name, and later Adie & Son when his son joined the firm. Adie was particularly interested in meteorological instruments and is perhaps best known as the inventor of the Sympiesometer, a compact and lightweight type of barometer, in 1818. In recognition of his work, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1819.