Accession No

6555

Brief Description

ebony cross-staff, missing vane(s), probably Dutch, 1606

Origin

Netherlands [attributed]

Maker

unknown

Class

navigation; astronomy

Earliest Date

1606

Latest Date

1606

Inscription Date

1606

Material

Wood (ebony); paint

Dimensions

312mm (height) x 12mm (width) x 12mm (depth)

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Tesseract, Box 151, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York 10706, U.S.A., on or before 16/03/2012. Item 14 in Tesseract catalogue 94, spring 2012.

Inscription

“1606”

Description Notes

Ebony cross-staff, missing vane(s), probably Dutch, 1606.

Ebony cross-staff post, broken at one end, and missing cross vane(s). Eye end rounded off. Signed with a monogram stamp (? illegible) and dated “1606” between star punches. Scales and numbers appear to be filled with white paint, which has worn away near the broken end. The scales are non-linear and begin with 90o and a triple star punch, descending variously. Smallest subdivisions are by quarter degrees.

Earliest dated cross-staff known. One cross-staff exists that is older than this one, but it is undated. Tesseract used Mörzer Bruyns’ book (listed in subject reading) to divine that it is the earliest dated cross-staff, and also to form the conclusion it was possibly Dutch; his book includes an inventory of all 95 known cross staves, and shows various early characteristics, being narrow and having scales for altitude only. However, it is a very early example of having scales on all four sides, which was only standard by the mid-17th century. Much production of cross-staffs was by the Dutch East India Company, the VOC.

Condition: good/fair; incomplete.

References

Events