A Fine Richard Glynne Silver and Gilt Brass Compass Dial, English, Circa 1710,
signed R Glynne Fecit,
the compass rose with thirty two compass points, 360 degree scale and centered by a finely engraved roundel of a dragons head and scrolling decoration, the folding silver gilt gnomon pierced and engraved with a demi-swan holding an arrow, the circumference engraved with an hour scale with Roman numerals reading to 5 minutes, the silver and red leather covered lid engraved on the inner surface with an Equation of Time, calendar scale, perpetual calendar and IIII-XII-VIII hour scale and locations Peking, Surrat, Caro, Rome, Paris, Dublin, Tenarif, Barbadoes, N.York, Mexico,
4/5in x 4in 4in (2cm x 10cm x 10cm) when closed
Footnotes:
Provenance:
Bonhams, London, 21 April 2010, Lot 138.
Private collection.

Richard Glynne (1681-1755) was apprenticed to the well-known instrument-maker Henry Wynne in the Clockmakers' Company on 6 April 1696 and became free 29 September 1705. He would be Steward of the Company in 1725. He established himself 'next door to the Latin Coffee House in Ave Maria Lane, near St Paul's London' where the same year he was puffed as 'a very skilful and Accurate Mathematical Instrument-Maker' for 'Azimuth Compasses...as also other things' in the first English edition of Guillet's, The Gentleman's Dictionary... (London 1705). In 1705 also, he married Anne Lea, daughter of the map and globe retailers Philip (d. 1700) and Anne Lea (d. 1730) joining in partnership with the latter from at latest 1712. In December that year they issued proposals for the production of 36-inch diameter globes.

By this time, Glynne was working from his partner's address at the Atlas and Hercules in Cheapside where he remained until c. 1718 when he is found opposite Salisbury Court, Fleet Street. In 1725 with Anne Lea he reissued Philip Lea's map of London, Westminster and Southwark but his main activity was 'all sorts of Mathematical Instruments either for Land or Sea, according to the newest improvements' as he stated in an advertisement in 1726. A range of mathematical instruments by him – sectors, drawing instruments, sun-dials, armillary spheres and armillary planetaria - are known by him, all of clean, uncluttered, appearance but finely and precisely engraved as in the major example of his work here offered.

The influence of his master, Henry Wynne, can perhaps be seen on this dial in the inclusion of the series of places throughout the world, Wynne being perhaps the earliest London maker to deploy this refinement. Glynne, who formed five apprentices during his working career, ceased trading in 1730 when his stock was auctioned from the optician Edward I Scarlett's shop. He died in 1755.

Outer red leather casing well rubbed and with some colour loss, otherwise in very good original condition.