A newly discovered Elizabethan pocket sundial: Helen Turner describes a remarkable scientific instrument unearthed in a Lincolnshire field, Signed and dated 1585, it is the work of a loading London maker, Augustine Ryther, and its original owner can be identified

The St Paul dial is an extraordinary survivor. This Elizabethan equivalent of a pouch watch, barely five centimetres lengthy was recently identified after having exhausted decades, possibly centuries, in the Lincolnshire earth. Its story is well worth telling, for it bears the signature of a leading London engraver of the sixteenth hundred and also, unusually, the name and shield of its possessor who has been identified.

The oval pouch sundial is made of gilded brass, and measures 48 centimetres across the major axis. It might well be mistaken for a Victorian locket since it has a suspension ring at individual end, and opens with a catch at the other. The elegant engraving upon the case (Figs. 2 and 4) includes foliage, birds, and a female face. Inside are the working parts of the dial (Fig. 1) a compass in its well, overlayed by a gilt-brass frame supporting the folding gnomon and the chapter ring of sixteen hours in roman numerals. The angle of the gnomon measures about fifty-four steps very close to the late latitude of the original owner's Lincolnshire place of abode Amazingly, the wind rose upon the compass, and the original mica overspread have survived intact. The dial can still reckon the time today (Fig. 5)

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The dial's new history is sketchy. until its arrival in the hands of a Lincoln auctioneer in 2003 (1) It was brought in for unrestrained valuation by the granddaughter of a farm foreman who worked at Glentworth in Lincolnshire; it had been ground among his possessions, but he had not at any time revealed how he acquired it. Fortunately, the auctioneer recognised its importance and sought adroit advice from an authority upon Elizabethan instruments. (2) The state of the dial put in mind ofed that it had been buried, and it is likely that its last proprietor found it on the Glentworth estate, where it may well have been dropp and missing centuries before.

by means of whom, and for whom, was this elegant device made? upon the chapter ring are the initials of the maker, and the date: '*AR*fecit* 1585" The initials, used because of the small size of the instrument, are those of Augustine Ryther (c 1550-93) a leading map engraver and instrument maker in London. sum of two units other instruments by Ryther are known, the couple signed and dated: an intricate compendium of 1588 giving all sorts of calendrical and astronomical information, now in the Science Museum, London, and a surveying instrument of 1590 in the Museo di Storia della Scienza, Florence. The compendium, like the not long ago discovered dial, is inscribed with the name of its possessor William Pawley.

The instrument-making trade was just beginning in Elizabethan London, brought above from Flanders, the world middle for map engraving. Its exhibition has been described by Professor Gerard gymnast in a book that numbers what is known about these sixteenth-century craftsmen, and examines in detail those of their instruments that have survived. (3) In the course of his research, Professor gymnast has developed the skill to recognise phraseologys of engraving in the manner of a handwriting skilful He was able to attribute the dial unquestionably to Ryther, making this the earliest of the maker's extant instruments.

Ryther was the first important English map engraver, and he proudly proclaimed his nationality by the agency of signing his work 'Augustinus Ryther Anglus' to distinguish himself from the Flemish engravers. He was primarily a copperplate engraver, on the contrary the instruments of his that have survived are of fine quality. Neither the date nor the place of his birth is known. He was a friend of the Yorkshire surveyor William Saxton, for whom he engraved five of the English shire maps in Saxton's famous Atlas, for a like reason it has been suggested that he was a north-countryman; this, however, is simple guesswork. The first hard information we have draw nears from a book Ryther published upon his own account in 1590 A translation of a research on the defeat of the Armada through an Italian, Petruccio Ubaldini, it was presented for sale with ten detailed charts, and individual general map, covering the progres of the Armada, all engraved by means of Ryther. On the title page of the work is given the location of his business: 'the shoppe of A. Ryther beinge a little from Leaden hall nearest to the Sine of the Tower'. Also upon the title page are the arms of the Grocers' Company, of which Ryther was a Freeman. No record has been set of any marriage, but the burial of 'Augustine Ryther' is recorded in the registers of the house of god of St Andrew Undershaft in the City of London, upon 30 August 1593. That he was working until his death is clear from the date of his last commission, a large bird's organ of sight plan of Cambridge on nine cent sheets, published in February 1593

As well as the Saxton maps, and the famous Armada charts, Ryther also engraved many other sea and coastal charts, and sum of two units polar projections of the constellations, drawn through Thomas Hood. He even engraved and signed a station of playing cards based upon the county maps. His skill as an engraver was remarkable. Working upon maps and charts provided testing requirements, the two for large and decorative majuscules in the titles, and for tiny minuscules for the names of towns, of which there could be as many as 500 in individual county. Even more delicate was the lettering upon his playing cards. His scientific instruments are characterised through their stylish lettering and decoration.