Equatorial sundial in the oldest Moscow Park "Sokolniky"
Brass, gold (24 Kt), marble, limestone.
Edition – unique.
Diameter of the disc 235 mm.
The Rosarium of the oldest Moscow Park “Sokolniky” is located in the south part of Moscow. The head of the Rosarium Marina asked me to make a sundial in this paradise looking garden. We walked around the garden discussing the construction of it and the place where it should be installed. An old piece of marble meets our eyes and I asked Marina what it is. She told that this piece if Italian marble lays on this lawn at least from the end of 19 century when there was a sculptural work shop not far from here. At this point our discussion was over. We decided to use in our sundial this marble architectural fragment that we inherited from our predecessors. Thus, in this moment our sundial was not even delineated but had already a history as old as one century.
The next step was to invent the most unusual construction. I decided to make an equatorial sundial with three gnomons casting the shadows onto three scales. Roses vegetate in Moscow climate from June to October. In the rest part of year the Rosarium is closed for public. I like the idea to make a sundial that, like roses, lives and works only between the spring and autumn equinoxes. To prevent vandalism I made short conic gnomons with 120 mm invisible parts pasted into the marble with two components glue. Gnomons and dial are made of brass.
The shadows of the central gnomon measures the day sawing time, the tip of it going along the declination line calculated for the Rosarium birthday – June, 28, 1957. The west gnomon measures the true solar time on the local meridian. The east gnomon measures the azimuth of the sun.
The column supporting the piece of marble is made of limestone. On its west and east edges I curved the words of Ovidius "Everything is changed, nothing disappears" in Russian and in Latin languages. On the north edge of the column there is a manual of how to use this sundial. I have made it of 5 mm brass and covered it with 24 Kt gold.
The dial disc was firstly covered with 24 Kt gold too. This is a result of my passion for the method of gilding that I have learned recently. My friends even tended to avoid meeting with me as I bothered them with asking to gild free their spectacles, cell telephones, watches and so on. Bright polished gilded dial reflects sky, clouds, trees etc but does not allow seeing even a trace of shadow. I have to remove the gold with very fine polish paste. But the gnomons are steel gilded.
