BSS Sales List (July 2021)

All prices exclude postage and packing. Please contact sales@sundialsoc.org.uk directly for current rates.


BSS Publications

Note – the archive of early issues of BSS Bulletins, previously available on CD or DVD, is now freely available online.
Binder for Bulletins. Yellow with BSS emblem on spine. Holds up to 12 issues. £5.50

BSS Monograph Series

Christopher Daniel: The Equation of Time: The Invention of the Analemma. Monograph No.1. (out of stock)

A brief history of the subject (January 2006).

£10.00
Allan Cook: Mass Dials in Yorkshire Churches. Monograph No. 3. £6.50
Mike Cowham: Altitude Dials. Monograph No. 4. (out of stock) £12.50
John Davis & Michael Lowne: The Double Horizontal Dial – and associated instruments. (2009) Monograph No. 5. £17.50
Ian Butson, Jill Wilson & Tony Wood: Sundials in Museums in the British Isles.
Monograph No. 7. (3 copies only)
£8.00
David Scott & Mike Cowham: Timekeeping in the Medieval World, a study of Anglo-Saxon and early Norman sundials, (2010) Monograph No. 8. (out of stock) £17.50
Alan Cook: Addendum to Mass Dials on Yorkshire Churches (2011). Monograph No. 9. £6.00
Mario Arnaldi: De Cursu Solis: Medieval Azimuthal Sundials.(2012) Monograph No. 10. (out of stock)

The monograph is a scholarly study of this early form of horizontal sundial. It gives transcriptions and translations of the five main medieval manuscripts (in Latin) which are known and then critically reconstructs the sundials which they describe. The earliest of the manuscripts is dated to 989 AD and the others are generally 11th or 12th century.

£10.00
Tony Wood: Somerset Scratch Dials (2015). Monograph No. 11.

The original photographs of Dom Ethelbert Horne.

£10.00
Jill Wilson: Biographical Index of British Sundial Makers Third Edition. Monograph No. 12.

Updated and greatly expanded since the second edition of 2007, it gives details of almost 1900 dial makers working from the 7th to the 20th century, and includes the heyday of British scientific instrument making. Not only is it essential for conducting research into dial making, but it is also a good read, with some fascinating snippets. Arranged by centuries to emphasise changing styles and to show associations between dial makers of their period, it is complemented by an appendix covering sundial makers in London guilds, with a visual representation of master-apprentice relationships mentioned in the text.

£18.50
John Davis: BSS Sundial Glossary and Sourcebook of Dialling Data (Third Edition, 2020). Monograph No. 13. £14.00
John Davis: The Portable Saxon Sundial at Canterbury Cathedral (2021). Monograph No. 14. New
The silver and gold Saxon sundial discovered at Canterbury Cathedral in 1938 is a unique but enigmatic device. Although widely featured in a superficial manner in many publications it has not been properly studied before: neither its materials and manufacture nor for its likely provenance have been discussed. Based on an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) examination of its several component parts, it can now be hypothesised that it is closely linked to King Edgar’s reform of the English monetary system in A.D. 973
£10.00

Other BSS Publications

BSS Mass Dial Register 2018: DVD, or abridged A5 booklet. £12
BSS Fixed Dial Register 2020: DVD or USB, or abridged A5 booklet.

Available to, and for the use of, BSS members only.

£15 Members only
Mike Cowham (Ed.): Sundials of the British Isles, Limited edition of 600 copies, 1st Ed (2005), pp 272 full colour.

A beautiful hardback book with 500 photographs and contributions from 28 authors.

£20
£25
Members
Non-members
John Davis: Sundial Glossary – a sourcebook of dialling data (revised & expanded 2nd edition).

A glossary of some 600 terms, arranged alphabetically, used in dial making, time keeping and astronomy. With formulae and chronology and 29 appendices of useful dialling data.

£14.00
Jane Walker: Make a Sundial (revised 3rd edition with colour photographs)

Although originally written to cover school projects, a very useful introduction to making basic types of dial.

£6.50
John Lester (Ed.): Mrs Crowley’s Sundial Sketchbook of Devon & Cornwall, published jointly with the Antiquarian Horological Society

Facsimilies of sketches of sundials in Devon and Cornwall (some now lost) drawn by Mrs Crowley in the early 1960s, together with modern photographs and a commentary.

£15.00
Sundial Slides: sets of 6 in colour. Basic theory; early historical; early British Dials; dial types. 3 sets covering many modern and some well-known traditional dials. £5.00
Mass Dials of Lincolnshire: CD-ROM £15.00
BSS Postcards – packs of 10. 1: Scaphe dial, Cark, Holker Hall; 2: 19th century Celtic, Clynnog-fawr; 3: Heliochronometer, Dunchurch; 4: Vertical, 1749, Malmesbury House, Salisbury; 5: Polar cross dial, Bramdean. £2.00

Members Only Publications

These publications are only available to BSS members. Contact BSS Sales for details of current availablility and prices.

BSS Fixed Dial Register 2020 (Separate volumes for North and South, Abridged and as a CD-ROM)
BSS Library Catalogue. Dialling books in the collection located at the Bromley House Library, Nottingham.

Other Publications Distributed by BSS

Christopher Daniel: Sundials, Shire Album 176, Shire Publications, 5th Ed (2000), pp 32

An excellent introduction to a wide variety of sundials.

UK £??
Margaret Stanier: Oxford Sundials (revised & expanded 2nd edition with 24 colour plates)

Photographs and accompanying text of many of the dials in Oxford.

£6.50
David & Dorothy Le Conte: Guernsey Sundials.

18 sundials on Guernsey, Alderney and Sark.

£6.50
Margaret Stanier & Alexis Brookes: Cambridge Sundials, (with 29 colour plates) (out of stock)

Photographs and accompanying text of many of the dials in Cambridge. With map showing locations.

£6.50
Margaret Folkard & John Ward: Sundials Australia

A well-illustrated book on the history of dialling, types of sun dial, how to make and install, mathematics and other useful in formation.

Out of print
Caroline Martin: A Celebration of Cornish Sundials. £4.00
Mario Arnaldi: The Ancient Sundials of Ireland

An illustrated study of Celtic and other dials; references and extensive bibliography

£6.50

Other BSS Merchandise

BSS Bow Tie: dark blue with BSS emblem £7.00
BSS Tie: dark blue with BSS emblem £9.00
BSS Ladies Scarf: dark blue with BSS emblem and yellow line edging £16.00
BSS Lapel Brooch: £3.50

Please note: Postage and packing will be charged separately. Please contact sales@sundialsoc.org.uk directly for current rates.

BSS Sales: Elspeth Hill, 4 The Village, Stonegate, Wadhurst, E. Sussex, TN5 7EN
Tel: 01580 201720 (please leave message on answer phone if necessary)
E-mail: sales@sundialsoc.org.uk


BSS Library

The Society has built up a reference library of specialist books and journals on sundials for use by members. Many are out of print. See the article in the December 2004 Newsletter. A library catalogue has recently been published. See above. Enquiries may be directed to the Society’s Librarian

As the BSS is affiliated to it, members may also use the library of the Royal Astronomical Society in London.


Books and Publications distributed by the NASS

The North American Sundial Society has announced a series of digital facsimile reprints of rare books on dialing. Each volume in the series includes a reproduction of a centuries old dialling text not readily available elsewhere. For more information follow this Link


Popular Publications (Not available from BSS)

Jenkins, Gerald and Bear, Magdalen: Sundials and Time Dials Tarquin Publications, 1987, pp 15.

Cut-out models of 6 types of dial and sun related instruments

Jenkins, Gerald and Bear, Magdalen; The Sun, Moon and Tides, Tarquin Publications, 1991, pp 39.

Includes a cut-out model of an equatorial dial

Lennox Boyd, Mark: Sundials: History, Art, People, Science, Frances Lincoln, 2006, pp 176

A beautiful book that can be dipped into as a coffee table book yet has much to interest the expert, spanning the globe from Arab countries to Japan and the centuries from pre-history to now.

Rohr, Réne R J: Sundials, History, Theory, and Practice, Dover Publications, 1996, pp 142.

A clear and easy to follow exposition of dials and dial making

Waugh, Albert Sundials, their Theory and Construction, Dover Books, London and New York, 1973, pp 228.

A popular book that gives full design instructions together with several tables of relevant solar information


Less Common Books, some of which may be out of print (Not available from BSS)

Adzema and Jones: The Great Sundial Cutout Book

Aked, Charles: A New Opusculum of Dialling References, privately published, 1997 pp 186

Botzum, R & C: Scratch and Sundials on Hereford Churches

Bryden, David J: Sundials and Related Instruments, Catalogue No 6 The Whipple Museum, Cambridge, 1988, pp 108

Cousins, Frank: Sundials, A Simplified Approach, John Baker, London, 1972, pp 247

One of the important and modern classic text books on dialling

Cross, Launcelot: A Book of Old Sundials and their Mottoes, TN Foulis, 1914, pp 102

Daniel, Christopher: Sundials on Walls, National Maritime Museum, Monograph No 28,1978, pp 25

Dolan, Winthrop: A Choice of Sundials, Stephen Careen Press, Vermont, 1973, pp 148

Drinkwater, Peter. The Art of Sundial Construction, 2nd ed, privately published, P Drinkwater, Church St, Shipston-on-Stour, 1987, pp 80

Earle, Alice Morse: Sundials and Roses of Yesterday, Macmillan, London & New York 1902, pp 461

Gatty, Mrs Alfred: The Book of Sundials, (Eden and Lloyd, ed) George Bell, 1900 pp546

Gouk, Penelope: The Ivory Sundials of Nuremberg 2nd ed (out of stock)

Green, Arthur. Sundials Incised Dials or Mass Clocks, SPCK, London, 1978, pp 203

Henslow, Geoffrey: Ye Sundial Booke, W & G Foyle, London, 1935, pp 422

Herbert, A P: Sundials Old and New, Methuen, 1967, pp 198

Hogben, Lancelot: Science for the Citizen, 2nd Edition, Allan & Unwin 1940

Horne, Ethelbert: Scratch Dials, Description and History, Simkin Marshall Lid, 1929, pp 72

Marshall, Roy: Sundials, Macmillan, New Yolk, 1963, pp 126

Martin, Mrs Carolyn: A Celebration of Cornish Sundials, Dyliansow, Truro, 1994, pp 48

Mayall, R Newton and Mayall, Margaret W: Sundials, How to Know, Use and Make them, Sky Publishing 1973, pp 250

McVean, Colin: Sundials for Fun, privately published, Time Te as, Fairford, Gloucestershire,1995, pp 182

Mills, H R: Positional Astronomy and Astro-navigation made easy, Stanley Thornes, 1978, pp 267.

A very good book with a practical approach to many types of sundials

Pattenden, Philip: The Pelican Sundial, Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 1980, pp 52

Pattenden, Philip: Sundials at an Oxford College, Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 1979, pp 100

Price, Lawrence: Scratch Dials, Sun and Harvest Publications, 1991, pp 92

Ransom, Peter: A Dozen Dials, privately published, P Ransom, Rufus Close, Southampton, S018 8LR,1988, pp 56

A selection of dial; illustrated and wall supported by line drawings and a bibliography

Scarr, M M: The Dial, Queen’s College, Cambridge, Queens’ College, 1988, pp 9

Somerville, Andrew: The Ancient Sundials of Scotland, Rogers Turners Books Ltd, 1990, pp 104

Stoneman, Milton: Easy-to-Make Wooden Sundials, Dover Publications New York, 1982, pp 38

Trovillion, VA H: The Sundial In our Garden, Trovillion Press, USA, 1955, pp 50

Vincent, Carole: Time and the Sundial, privately published, 1988, pp 20

Wynter, Harriet and Turner, Anthony: Scientific Instruments, Cassell and Collier. Macmillan Publishers, 1975, ISBN 0 289 704030.

One chapter is devoted to sundials, with many historical dials photographed in colour


Sundial Books published in other countries (Not available from BSS)

Favero. Enrico del: MERIDIANE, De Vecchi Editore, Milano 1999, ISBN 88-421-1697-9

A book to inspire, with fine (partly coloured) construction drawings, as well as many excellent photographs (in Italian)

Homet Jean-Marie: Les Cadrans Solaires, Ch Maison, pp 64.

Well illustrated, showing a variety of dials, including many painted vertical dials typical of European practice (In French)

Paltrinieri, Giovanni: Meridiane e Orologi Solari d’Italia, L’Artiere EdizioniWia, 1997, pp 263

An outstanding book by Italy’s leading sundial designer. Profusely illustrated, covering all types of dials and especially meridian lines, ceiling dials, and many dials in public squares and parks (fn Italian)

Wheaton-Smith, Simon: Illustrating Shadows, pp 298

Covers sundial design using ancient and modern methods including spreadsheets and CAD. Follow this link.

Zenkert, Arnold. Faszination Sonnenuhr. (3rd Edition with CD) Vedag: Deutsch, Harri, Verlag GmbH. ISBN: 3-8171 1579-2 Third revised edition.

The book shows the cultural development of sundials and gives guidance on building sundials. It contains a new CD-ROM with 108 sundial photos, programs for different kinds of sundials and II calculations (in German). USA, 1955, pp50


Specialist Booksellers of Antiquarian and current Horological and Sundial books

Jeffrey Formby Antiques
Orchard Cottage
East Street
Moreton in Marsh
Gloucestershire
GL56 0LQ Phone: 01608 650558
email: jeff@formby-clocks.co.uk
www.formby-clocks.co.uk