Antique
& Collectible Surveying
Instruments
including
Transits, Theodilites, Solar
Instruments, Levels, Compasses, Alidades, Chains, Plumb Bobs,
Etc.
We can help you sell your Surveying & Scientific Related Antiques!!
I am a dealer in Antique Surveying Instruments and science and technology
related antiques.
If you have an antique surveyor's instruments to sell, please contact us at
LCM@AntiqBuyer.com
or the phone number above,
and lets discuss it.
Surveying
Compasses
As
dealers & sellers of
American antique surveyor's instruments
and vintage tools we buy & sell many different types of antique surveying instruments
and related vintage accessories that a surveyor, architect, engineer,
or builder would have used in his trade.
I deal in many different forms of early survey instruments
& surveyor's compasse
s like the
Gurley compass
to the right. We are especially interested in acquiring more complex
antique surveying instruments such as solar compasses or those fitted with
auxiliary scopes like the Gurley compass shown.
The first surveying instruments used to explore, survey, and divide
up America came with the early settlers and explorers from England and the
original homelands of those early explorers and
adventurers. During the earliest Colonial times most of the available
surveying instruments in America were manufactured in England and were
distributed in America from the largest cities such as New York, Boston,
and Philadelphia which were located along the Eastern seaboard or had
access to large bodies of water or seaways.
It was not long before the
demand for surveying and related instruments outstripped the limited
supply of imported instruments and a new industry began to develop here in
America. These same areas also became the centers of manufacturing
activity in early America and expectedly the locations or home base of the
earliest American surveying instrument makers.
These earliest makers included Anthony Lamb and Thomas
Briggs of New York,
and Aaron Breed of Boston. Early makers of surveying
and other mathematical instruments
from the Philadelphia area included Benjamin Condy and James Ham, as well
as the more recognizable names David Rittenhouse and his brother Benjamin
Rittenhouse, who have been said to have made George Washington's surveying
instruments and compasses for him when he was a surveyor prior to the
American Revolution. (Rittenhouse compass pic above)
Early wooden surveying compasses by Colonial era makers are becoming ever
more difficult to
obtain. Wood
was utilized for several reasons, availability and ease of construction
being the main ones. The earliest makers and pioneers in the
development of surveying instruments were "Yankee's" in the truest sense
of the word. They made do with the materials at hand. Even
though brass is relatively easy to work, non magnetic, and adaptable to
the form needed, wood was an even easier material to work with and in
ready and plentiful supply. The vast majority of the early compass makers that
utilized wood as the basic material for the bodies of their instruments
originated from the New England area. Many of these first American made
examples are seeming crude and rudimentary, but have a sense and presence
that once appreciated and understood make them very appealing.
These
earliest American examples had paper labels under the glass known as
compass cards. The compass bearings and added graphics were engraved on
a plate used to make the paper cards. It has even been purported that
Paul Revere provided one Boston maker with an engraving plate that he
purportedly used to make his compass cards with. Some of these were works
of art depicting scenes with animals or landscapes or even people at
work.
Later Compasses from areas like New York and Philadelphia were typically
made of brass and their compass faces can be highly decorated or engraved
with intricate and beautiful geometric designs like the example to the
right. Later mass produced examples became simpler with just the points
called off and a few points or arrows leading to them engraved on the
face.
The list of individual makers of all forms of surveying
instruments continued to grow along with America throughout the 19th
century. The major makers continued to be concentrated in or near the
major cities and hubs of activity, but the list of maker from
other
areas began to grow with people setting up shops in places like Western
PA, different parts of Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, and elsewhere.
St.
Louis also became a center of activity with its strategic local and
jumping off point on the Mississippi River for the trek west. The first
and best known California makers of surveying instruments were Schmolz of
San Francisco, followed by John Roach who moved there from New York after
a partnership with Warner in the mid 1800's, and finally Joseph Sala who
took over the Roach busines
s
after his death.
The list and examples known number in the many hundreds,
and there is a comprehensive although not complete list of known makers
and examples of their instruments documented and pictured at the Virtual
Museum of Surveying compass makers directory which can be found here:
http://www.surveyhistory.org/compass maker directory.htm
I am an active antique dealer in early or antique surveying
instruments and looking to add nice examples to
the sale pages on our sales website located at
www.Patented-Antiques.com.
Examples of Select
Antique Surveying Instruments
Previously Sold
*****Click
links below*****
The surveying instruments
listed below are examples of the
caliber, condition and quality of antique surveying instruments and equipment that I am primarily interested in.
If you have quality antique surveying instruments similar to those that you see
on this page that you want to sell, please contact us at
LCM@AntiqBuyer.com
providing me with as many details as possible. Thank you!!
To see other examples of antique
surveying instruments and related equipment that I currently have for sale,
or have sold in the past please go to our sister site
at www.Patented-Antiques.com.and
visit the surveying related sale pages and past sales archive pages you will find there.
Thanks Larry & Carole
