Curator’s Chronicles The Curator of Clocktime, Dr Kristin Leith, invites you to discover more about her world of horology. Hello fellow Clockies! I hope you have been enjoying the sun. I certainly have, especially since the brighter and longer days of summer are ideal for sundials! In July, I was in Sicily on holiday with my family. While there, I became enchanted with the island’s historic sundials. To the irritation of other tourists, I spent an entire afternoon in Palermo Cathedral walking the length of its famous meridian line and obsessively taking photos. The Cathedral’s meridian line was created by astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi around 1800. Decorated with signs of the zodiac, it stretches diagonally in a north-south direction across the knave of the cathedral. It functions as a sundial thanks to a hole in the roof that allows the sun to shine through, announcing noon. I also recently learned about Palermo’s dodecahedron sundial, which was invented in 1788 by Sicilian mathematician Lorenzo Federici. Made of marble, it sits atop the statue of Atlas in the city’s first public park, the Villa Giulia. Each face of Federici’s dodecahedron features a sundial, showing the time in multiple time zones! If you are fascinated by sundials and want to explore the history, science and making of this most ancient type of timekeeper, join a sundial society in your area. For example, sundial aficionados in the UK can join the British Sundial Society and enthusiasts in the US can join the North American Sundial Society. While most of my summer was spent with my nose in various books, doing research, I also managed to sneak away to Vienna for a few days. While there, I had the pleasure of visiting the Wien-Uhrenmuseum (the Vienna Clock Museum). Curator Tabea Rude, who looks after the 700 or so timekeepers on display, showed me around the collection, treating me to a crash course in Austrian horology. Here I saw the tower clock from Vienna’s St Stephen’s Cathedral, mind-bogglingly complicated astronomical clocks, Austrian Gothic clocks, cuckoo clocks from the Black Forest, and beautiful examples of clocks made during the Biedermeier period (1815 to 1848). It was also interesting to see how innovations of the 17th and 18th century London clockmakers influenced a few of the Austrian productions on display. I’m pleased to say that a new clock story was just added to the Clocktime website - the Millbourn Tompion Longcase exhibit. It reveals how Thomas Tompion produced this refined clock around 1699, at the height of his career, and how he was the first maker to use mass production techniques. It also shines a deserved light on the collector Sir Phillip Eric Millbourn. It is his surname by which the clock is known today. This is important because, although Millbourn is a figure of relatively recent historical significance, his name and story have largely faded from cultural memory. Initially, I had a tough time figuring out just who this Millbourn character was. All I had to go on was the name of the clock, ‘The Milbourn Tompion’ and the name ‘Sir Eric Milbourn’ listed in the clock’s provenance. No one by this name exists in the record. I found a ‘Sir Phillip Eric Millbourn’, in which Millbourn is spelled with two ‘l’s, included in the 1955 British New Year’s Honours List, which is contemporaneous with the dates attributed to ‘Sir Eric Milbourn’ in the clock’s provenance. I also found records of other items from Millbourn’s private collection that came up for auction around the same time as the Tompion longcase. Based on this, ‘Sir Eric Milbourn’ was, in fact, Sir Phillip Eric Millbourn. It seems that Millbourn’s name had been miss-spelled with only one ‘l’ in recent catalogues, hence, the confusion. We’ve now corrected the spelling of his name in the clock’s title, and re-integrated Millbourn into the clock’s noble story. Millbourn excelled at ‘quietly and efficiently getting things done for governments.’ Also, if you have ever used a large international airport, you are probably benefitting from Millbourn’s work! Please read the story on the Clocktime website to find out more! If you have a burning question about time, send it to me here. Also, if you or your group would like me or one of my Clocktime colleagues to speak at an event in person or online, do let me know. As ever, I wish you all excellent timing. Dr Kristin Leith
