On the bottom of the clamshell sundial, there is an inscription saying that it belonged to Antonio Parenti. Around 1845, he was the lighthouse keeper on the tiny Italian island of Palmaiola near Elba. A decade later, he was mentioned as a harbormaster in nearby Livorno. At that time, he was also in charge of the supervision of the region’s lighthouses.
But the lighthouse keeper did not need the sundial for his job, because, as is generally known, lighthouse signals are only turned on at dusk, when the sun has already gone down. Parenti rather used the sundial during the day, for his everyday routines. His signature on the device proves that in the mid-19th century, other portable timepieces such as pocket watches were still too expensive for the vast majority of people
Clamshell sundial, Paul Beringer, Nuremberg, around 1830, Inv. 2022-056