Medieval Sundials

This large antique garden sundial once resided in the grounds of Fort Belvedere, a Grade II listed country house in Surrey UK, built in the 1750s. Pictured is a black and white photograph of the front of Fort Belvedere circa early-Mid 19th Century showing what we believe to be this sundial in the centre of the driveway. Fort Belvedere was the residence of various members of the British royal family during the late 18th to mid 20th centuries. Perhaps the most notable was King Edward VIII, who signed his abdication at Fort Belvedere in 1936, passing the throne to his brother, George VI, and subsequently Queen Elizabeth II. This spectacular antique garden sundial dates from the 1830s, around the time when Fort Belvedere was undergoing significant renovations in a Gothic Revival style. To this day, Fort Belvedere remains a part of the British Crown Estate and resides within the grounds of Windsor Great Park. Part garden ornament, part sundial, the design is thought to be based on a ‘flower clock...

A impressive and intriguing Spanish Zodiac dating back to the Romanesque period. This architectural fragment would originally have been part of the facade of a aristocratic house or the inner walls of a cloister. Knowledge of the Zodiac was the privilege of the upper classes and only kept alive trough the efforts of monks who safeguarded (and hid at the same time) books and manuscripts since antiquity. This example is very rare, not only because of its age and size but also because it combines a Zodiac with a sundial. It is executed with great care and eye for proportion. The sculpture was originally made out of two vertical slabs tightly positioned next each other. We fixed both stones together and finished with a natural mortar in between as they did in the 12th century...

A impressive and intriguing Spanish Zodiac dating back to the Romanesque period. This architectural fragment would originally have been part of the facade of a aristocratic house or the inner walls of a cloister. Knowledge of the Zodiac was the privilege of the upper classes and only kept alive trough the efforts of monks who safeguarded (and hid at the same time) books and manuscripts since antiquity. This example is verry rare, not only because of its age and size but also because it combines a Zodiac with a sundial. It is executed with great care and eye for proportion. The sculpture was originally made out of two vertical slabs tightly positioned next each other. We fixed both stones together and finished with a natural mortar in between as they did in the 12th century...