Accession No

6557

Brief Description

sextant frame castings, unfinished, late 19th - early 20th century

Origin

Maker

Class

navigation

Earliest Date

1870

Latest Date

1930

Inscription Date

Material

[6557.1] Metal (bronze) [6557.2] Metal (brass); paint

Dimensions

[6557.1] 250mm (width) x 220mm ((height) x 13mm (depth) [6557.2] 250mm (width) x 220mm ((height) x 13mm (depth)

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Tesseract, Box 151, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York 10706, U.S.A. on or before 16/03/2012. Items 26 and 27 in Tesseract catalogue 94, spring 2012.

Inscription

[6557.1] “S...[illegible]... I M”
[6557.2] “20”; “SS20/24”

Description Notes

Sextant frame castings, unfinished, late 19th - early 20th century.

[6557.1] Unfinished bronze sextant frame casting in “bell” pattern, possibly a prototype. Has some markings and holes for fixtures. Bronze is worn away in a few places, or discoloured in others. Illegible engraving where index mirror would be fixed. Some fingerprints, particularly on the right protrusion; additionally along the bottom. Some scratches to surface.

[6557.2] Unfinished brass sextant frame casting in “elegant” pattern, possibly a prototype. One hole and additional circular markings assumedly for fixtures, or indicating joins in the metal. Some white paint (?) around fixture to which telescope would assumedly be attached (smaller fixture on left side). Paint also where index mirror would be attached (on both sides), and on inverse, is inscription “20” and “SS20/24”. Some fingerprints again on the bottom and right protrusion, although to a lesser extent. Back shows two areas of wear to the brass at the bottom.

complete.

References

Events