Sundials by Robert Foster Commission a dial

In gardens

A catalogue plate shows you the object. It cannot show you the thing that actually decides a sundial, which is how it sits in a place: at what height, against what, and how far away you stand from it.

These are Robert's photographs of finished pieces standing outdoors. Each one links through to the dial it shows.

Shown here: Ecliptic, Orbis, Solstice, Taurus, Draco, Capricornus.

An Ecliptic armillary on a pale stone Upton pedestal, standing at the centre of an octagon of paving cut into a lawn, with hydrangeas and a fence behind it.EclipticOn an Upton pedestal, at the centre of an octagon of paving.An Orbis armillary on a slim pedestal at the centre of a ring of clipped box hedging, on a long lawn with white planting and a bare tree behind it.OrbisInside a ring of clipped box, closing a long lawn.An Orbis armillary on a square stone plinth at the corner of a flagged terrace, looking out over a frosted lawn and orchard trees.OrbisOn a square plinth at the corner of a terrace, on a frosty morning.A bronze Solstice armillary on a dark pedestal against a brick garden wall, its arrow gnomon catching the low sun, with pink and yellow flowers in front of it.SolsticeAgainst a brick wall, the arrow catching the low sun.A bronze Solstice armillary on a tall pale baluster pedestal standing in a gravel bed edged with low clipped box, with conifers behind it.SolsticeOn a baluster pedestal in a gravel bed, ringed with low box.A bronze Solstice armillary on a plain square Tuscan plinth at the end of a stone flagged path running between planted borders.SolsticeOn a Tuscan plinth, closing the view along a flagged path.A large bronze Taurus armillary silhouetted against a hazy valley at sunset, with hillside trees behind it.TaurusAgainst a valley at sunset, the rings read as a silhouette.A close view of an engraved bronze Taurus armillary, with an inscription running along the outside of the equatorial band and the signs of the Zodiac engraved below it.TaurusAn inscription engraved along the outside of the equator band.A Taurus armillary on a stepped pale stone pedestal in a small garden, with roses and a clipped hedge behind it and its shadow falling across the lawn.TaurusOn a stepped pedestal in a small garden, casting its shadow on the lawn.A Draco armillary on a tall fluted pale column pedestal, standing on a lawn scattered with fallen autumn leaves.DracoOn a tall fluted column, on a lawn under autumn leaves.A Draco armillary mounted on a yellow brick pier set on a concrete pad, with conifers and a house behind it.DracoMounted on a brick pier, beside conifers.A Capricornus armillary on a slender stone pedestal set into a lawn, with forsythia in yellow flower and a beech hedge behind it.CapricornusOn a slender pedestal, with forsythia in flower behind.

The pedestal matters

Look through those twelve again and it is the plinth that changes the picture. The same armillary reads as a formal centrepiece on a tall fluted column and as a quiet garden ornament on a low rustic block.

Robert does not send pedestals long distance, so it is worth reading what he says about them before you settle on one.

Pedestals