Accession No

6889

Brief Description

compass maker's plate, by W. Eyre, English, 1680 or 1681

Origin

England

Maker

Eyre, W.

Class

dials

Earliest Date

1680

Latest Date

1681

Inscription Date

1681

Material

metal (brass)

Dimensions

142mm (diameter), 2mm (height)

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Tesseract in January 2026.

Inscription

Made by W. Eyre Anno 1680 [obverse]

Made by W. Eyre 1681 [reverse]

Description Notes

Compass maker's plate, by W. Eyre, English, 1680 or 1681.

Brass plate with engraved compass roses on both sides. The plate is circular, save for a small decorative element at the top, which extrudes slightly and contains a small hole presumably for hanging. There is also a small hole in the centre of plate. The obverse of the plate displays a 16-pointed compass rose, with the cardinal points marked with N,E,S,W. In the centre of the rose is a ring, around which is engraved the makers name and the year 1680. Around the compass rose are concentric circles. These are as follows: a circle of 128 directional divisions, a circle of 120 directional divisions, and five degree circles alternating between 0˚-360˚ by degrees, and 0˚-90˚ by 10˚ intervals, per quadrant. The outermost ring is cross-hatched on every other degree. The reverse is engraved as a mirror image of the obverse. The differences are that the date on the maker's mark is 1681 rather than 1680, and there are three additional engraved decorative elements: a central flower, a fleur-de-lys, and what appears to be a stylised sun with a face.

References

Events