Accession No

6363

Brief Description

‘globular projection’ surveying compass, by Benjamin Martin, English, c. third quarter 18th century

Origin

England; London

Maker

Martin, Benjamin

Class

surveying; cartography

Earliest Date

1750

Latest Date

1775

Inscription Date

Material

wood (mahogany); glass; metal (brass, steel); paper

Dimensions

145mm outer diameter 205mm long including slide

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Tesseract, David & Yola Coffeen, Box 151, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York 10706, U.S.A., on or before 17/07/2009.

Inscription

B. MARTIN
LONDON

Description Notes

‘Globular projection’ surveying compass, by Benjamin Martin, English, c. third quarter 18th century

The compass is glazed and fitted with a printed paper rose, circumferential brass ring divided every degree and labelled every 10°, fine blued needle, and replaced glass.

The paper bears an outer degree scale divided and labelled every 10°, a 32-point rose, a scale of twice-12 hours full circle, and an unusual ‘globular projection’, centred on England and depicting Europe, Asia, Africa, N. America and part of S. America, with continents labelled and outlined with traces of hand colouring. Also shown are arcs of latitude and longitude and the names of a few capes, seas, and islands.

The compass frame includes a dovetail slide so that it could be mounted along one side of a surveyor’s rectangular plane table.

References

Events