Sundial - Fredericksburg VA - Smithsonian Art Inventory Sculptures on Waymarking.com

An iron sundial on a concrete base stands near the old kitchen (currently an NPS office) in the gardens of Chatham Manor across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, VA. The sundial is a sphere composed of five intersecting rings. The sphere is perched on a smaller orb. One of the diagonal rings is aligned as an arrow with the arrowhead on its upper end and the tail on its lower end. The arrow points north. Atop the sphere is a silhouette of a beast with a tail walking on his back legs with his front paws on a staff, also facing north. The sphere sits on a concrete pedestal. The sculptor is unknown, although according to Chatham a landscape introduction, the statuary came from Kenneth Lynch & Sons. It is dated c. 1930.

Chatham Manor was originally built in the late 1700s. It went through several owners and changes over the next 150 years, including devastating damage during the Civil War, until the 1920s when Daniel and Helen Devore bought the property and began its restoration. They hired a landscape architect who extensively used statuary on the grounds, most notably in the gardens as accents and to draw visitors along the paths.¹

Today, the National Park Service owns the property. Although changes have been made to the original, ornate landscaping, some of the sculptures or exact replicas from the Devore years still remain, including the Sundial. Chatham is open daily from 9 AM to 4:30 PM. Admission is free.

¹ Gardens lost in time « HORTUS 2

TITLE: (Sundial) ARTIST(S): Unknown DATE: c. 1930 MEDIUM: Iron, concrete base CONTROL NUMBER: IAS VA000056 Direct Link to the Individual Listing in the Smithsonian Art Inventory: [Web Link] PHYSICAL LOCATION: Near the old kitchen in the gardens at Chatham: 120 Chatham Lane Fredericksburg, VA 22405 DIFFERENCES NOTED BETWEEN THE INVENTORY LISTING AND YOUR OBSERVATIONS AND RESEARCH: Condition was surveyed in August 1995 as 'well maintained'. In 2012, some of the iron rings show rust and the concrete base has cracks and several broken chips. If the sundial is the original from the Devore years, it is probably from several years earlier than 1930. The NPS auctioned many of the statues when acquiring Chatham in the 1970s, but replaced the originals from the same source, Kenneth Lynch & Sons, in the 1980s. If this is one of the replacements, it would be c. 1980.

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