The main part of this object (2019.ast.147.1) consists of a rectangular piece of wood carved on one surface into a sundial pattern. This is painted with a copper-coloured metallic paint and has a metallic inset along one edge. The sundial pattern has a four-pointed star in the centre, with W, N and E marked. Around three edges of the sundial there are numerals from 12 (at the N mark) counting from 11 to 5 on one side, and up from 1 to 7 on the other, like the standard arrangement of a clock face. On the S side of the sundial the metal insert gives instructions “To Get Standard Time Add to Dial Time The Number of Minutes Given Below” and provides a chart for reference which is given in months.
Accompanying this is a piece of wood used to create an indicating arm for a sundial (2019.ast.147.2)
Accession Number: 2019.ast.147.1-2 (DDA-0108)
Alternative Name:
Primary Materials: Wood, Metal: Copper Alloy?
On the metal insert: “TO GET STANDARD TIME ADD TO DIAL TIME THE NUMBER OF MINUTES GIVEN BELOW”
Length = 30.5, Width = 30.5, Height = 2.8
This is a casting mold pattern to make metallic casts of sundials. Sundials permit the use of the sun’s angle in the sky to tell the approximate time. The table on the sundial’s face provides correction information for calculating the correct time from the sundial.
This information is given in the Astronomy catalogue: “This design… was fashioned in wood by a skilled patternmaker. To make the sundial, the pattern was placed in a mould box (flask), and casting sand was packed around it. When the pattern was removed, it left its precise impression in the casting sand to form the mould. Molten metal was then poured into the mould to cast the sundial..”
Very good: The wood surface is in good condition, although the metallic paint does not cover the whole surfaces. Around all four edges, the copper-coloured painted has oxidized to a blue-green colour. The cast is dirty and marked in places, likely from use. The wood is in overall good condition with no chips or cracks.
Associated Instruments: 2019.ast.148
Manufacturer: Locally made
Date of Manufacture: 1928-1935
This casting mold was likely created for the initial casting of the Don-Alda Farm sundial, and then modified for casting the David Dunlap Observatory versions. Upon the sale of the observatory in 2009 it was moved, along with the other items in this collection, to the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics building at the St George Campus at the University of Toronto. It was stored there until 2017, when it was moved to a new storage location in McLennan Physical Laboratories.
This mold is nearly identical to a sundial designed and manufactured for Jessie Donalda Dunlap in for installation at the Dunlap family summer estate, Don-Alda Farm. The mold lacks the inscription “DON-ALDA FARM 1928” that appears on that sundial. These words are missing from an identical but slightly later sundial installed at David Dunlap Observatory; this mold was probably altered for casting the Observatory example, or the words may have been added separately to the imprint from which the Don-Alda cast was made.
The sundial was designed by Clarence A. Chant, is calibrated for the Toronto area, and was presented to Jessie Dunlap by Clarence A. Chant on May 30, 1928, although it was not installed at the Farm until approximately June, 1929. The sundial was intended to thank and recognise Dunlap and her family for her upcoming donation to fund the David Dunlap Observatory, then in the planning stage. Chant and Dunlap were involved in a search for a suitable location for the observatory around this time.
Chant wrote in his autobiography: “On Wednesday afternoon, May 30, I took a sun-dial over to 93 Highlands Ave. It had been made from a design of my own. On its face there was cast a table giving the correction, for each day of the year, to be applied to the dial reading in order to get Eastern Standard Time (for the neighbourhood of Toronto). Also there was cast on the face of the dial, DON-ALDA FARM 1928. Mrs. Dunlap was pleased with the dial, which however was not mounted on its pedestal until the next year.”
The Don-Alda Farm is now Donalda Golf Club, a private club in Don Mills, Toronto. The sundial inspired the name of club trophies and a magazine and features on the club’s crest. After sometime in storage, it is still installed at the club.
Chant, C.A. Autobiography (c. 1951) pg 807 (https://archive.org/details/clarenceaugustus00clar/page/807/mode/2up) [17-04-25]
Donalda Club, “The Original Sundial” (https://www.facebook.com/DonaldaClub/posts/the-original-sundial-ah-the-sundial-it-has-been-donalda-clubs-guiding-symbol-fro/3513417102043540/) [17-04-25]
“Mrs. Dunlap and Professor Chant At Don-Alda Farm, June 1929” (Photograph) The David Dunlap Observatory Scrapbook (1935) pg 8 (https://archive.org/details/ddobook00astr/page/n7/mode/2up) [17-04-25]
“Richmond Hill – Sundial 1063” Sundial Registry (https://www.sundials.org/index.php/sundial-registry/onedial/1063) [17-04-25]
Historical Notes: