| Grading System | |
|---|---|
Grade: AA |
Very good |
Brand Butterfield, Paris
Year early-18th century
Material brass
Length 218 mm. (unfolding)
Width 23 mm.
Thickness 3.6 mm.
Weight 73 gr. (approx.)
Signature case
Notes
Butterfield, Michael (1635-1724)
Watchmaker and manufacturer of sundials (gnomonist) of English origin, active in Paris since 1663. He was “Ingénieur du Roy pour les Instruments de Mathématique” (King’s Engineer for Mathematical Instruments) and was based at Quai de l’Horloge du Palais, “aux Armes d’Angleterre”.
His name is associated with a type of portable dial with compass, the invention of which he is credited with and whose explanation and use he published. Many other Parisian manufacturers made them at the end of the 17th century and throughout the 18th century.
Butterfield-type sundials are semi-universal horizontal dials, usually octagonal or oval in shape, with three or four different time scales, each marked for a different latitude (usually 43°, 46°, 49° and 52°). The index of the gnomon (style-folding triangular axis), which Butterfield designed like a bird, must be set for the appropriate latitude on the gnomon scale. The instrument incorporates a sixteen-direction compass, while the back is usually engraved with the names and latitudes of some twenty major European cities. This type of dial was very popular for a period of about 120 years, from about 1670 to 1790.
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Pied de roi
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Pied de roi
The pied de roi (pied de Roy or king’s foot) is a unit of measurement dating from the Ancien Régime, in use before the creation of the metric system in the revolutionary period (late-18th century). One pied de roi is equivalent to 32.48 cm.
This graduation can be found on various measuring instruments, including one that was given its name: the “proportion compass” or “sector”. It comes in the form of a folding ruler or folding square, and was widely used until the end of the 19th century.
The proportion compass is in fact the ancestor of the slide rule. It was used to make quick conversions or to determine proportions, hence its name, between “homogeneous” quantities, such as lengths, nautical distances, areas, weights, densities, etc. Each type of compass was adapted to one or more specific types of calculation.
These instruments, entirely covered with beautiful engravings, are today real objects of curiosity, jewels to be placed on your desk, which hide innumerable functions.
Biography
· Tomash, Erwin, & Williams, Michael, R., “The Sector: its history, scales, and uses”, in IEEE, Annals of the History of Computing, Historical perspectives on computing, software, and networking, vol. 25, January-March 2003, pp. 34-47.
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