Potey Grasshopper Sundial, Barcelonette, France - Sundials on Waymarking.com

The sundial on facing the garden of the home of G F Granier is an excellent, complex sundial. The street address is 13 rue Jules Béraud, Barcelonette, Alpes de Hautes Provence. This dial faces the garden at the back of the house. This sundial must have been an important commission for Rémi Potey as 1991 was early in his career. Here he demonstrated his gnomonic competence as well as his artistic skills. There are two sundials sharing the same gnomon. The small circular sundial at the top shows solar time. The noon meridian line is vertical. The hour lines are based on the shadow from the polar gnomon.

The larger dial in the circle below is more complex. The lines here are based on the shadow from the tip of the polar gnomon. This allows date as well as time to be indicated by the shadow of the tip of the point gnomon. Seven date or declination lines are shown. All are hyperbolic curves except for the equinox or equatorial line which is a straight line.

A correction for longitude is included. For example the noon meridian is not vertical but offset to show average clock time. An equation of time correction is also included in the figure of eight analemma shapes on each of the hour lines. These corrections will show you how much your clocks and watches are in error compared to true local solar time.

The artistic frames surround the circular dials. On the left side are the astrological symbols for the sun moon and planets. On the right side is a grasshopper. From my viewpoint as an engineer and gnomonist, both are equally meaningless. Artists may differ with my opinion. It does look good!

I saw this sundial first in 1996 on our first trip to this part of France. All the 1996 pictures are prints or slide and the locations are not precise. Shadows obscured sundial in the original the pictures taken over the garden wall. We were better prepared when we visited again in 2005. The owner, G F Granier, happened to be in the garden and allowed us access in to take some good pictures. I was pleased to congratulate him on the sundial he commissioned, perhaps Rémi Potey's best. It is signed RP but not in the stylistic trade mark adopted later, and dated 1991. The initials of the owner are also included as GFM.

Sundial Type: Vertical - Wall mounted dial plate Related Web Site: Not listed

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