Remarkable Shakespeare-themed bronze garden sundial with corresponding hour plaques crafted by Tiffany Studios in New York during the 1920s, commissioned by William Leonard Benedict, banker and partner of Kidder, Peabody & Co., first installed in Duxbury, Massachusetts, then Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The central sundial is circular, 18.5″ in diameter, with a compass rose at center with directional markers, and 8.75″ tall triangular gnomon in the form of panpipes. The dial is framed by a scroll marking hours of the day in Roman numerals, inscribed with a quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet: "'Tis now the very witching hour of night."
The disc-shaped hour marker plaques measure approximately 7″ in diameter, and feature Shakesperian quotes relating to the hour (includes extra, slightly different plaques for hours IIII, IX, and X). The quotes are as follows:
I. "The bell then beating one"—Hamlet
II. "Sure, Luciana, it is two o'clock"—Comedy of Errors
III. "The clock hath stricken three"—Julius Caesar
IIII. "How far into the morning is it, Lords? Upon the stroke of four"—Richard III
IIII. "How far into the days is't now my Lords? Upon the stroke of four"—Richard III
V. "At five o'clock I shall receive the money for the same"—Comedy of Errors
VI. "How's the day? On the sixth hour"—Tempest
VII. "Let's see. I think 'tis now some seven o'clock"—Taming of the Shrew
VIII. "The eighth hour be that the uttermost"—Julius Caesar
IX. "My Lord, it's nine o'clock"—Richard III
IX. "It's supper time, my Lord, it's nine o'clock"—Richard III
X. "It is ten o'clock, thus we may see how the world wags"—As You Like It
X. "Ten o'clock within these three house twill be time enough to go home"—All's Well That Ends Well
XI. "Eleven o'clock the hour"—Merry Wives of Windsor
XII. "What hour now? It think it lacks of twelve"—Hamlet
In fine condition, with the plate of the sundial misshapen with some losses to the patina and oxidation/discoloration in places due to weathering. The original installation had the sundial surrounded by a pool of water, with the plaques mounted upon an outer circular stone wall. Proper readings of the sundial depended on determining the exact latitude and longitude during installation.
