Goldsmith Chandlee's sundial, made around 1800, doesn't rush to tell you what you need to know.
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An instrument of waiting
Brass and mahogany: a simple inventory for a device whose operation depends on a cosmic arrangement. It measures time by requiring the cooperation of sunlight, location and attention.
Unlike a glowing digital number, the answer is contingent on the world outside the instrument.
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Time as a material
The object turns a passing hour into the movement of a shadow. Its beauty is not separate from its operation; it is the shape that operation takes.
Perhaps that is why these objects remain so affecting. They make measurement feel like observation again.
Sundial, c. 1800. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public-domain open access image.
Sundial
Goldsmith Chandlee · c. 1800
Brass and mahogany · United States
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
