Description:
Wooden surveyor's compass with the original sighting bars and wooden cover, and a brass mount on the bottom for a tripod. Compasses such as this were used for determing directions of the earth's magnetic surface by means of a magnetic needle swinging on a hardened pivot and pointing to magnetic north. The compass was made by Andrew Newell (1749-1798) who was a mathematical instrument maker in Boston from 1789-1798, and has a compass card engraved and signed by silversmith and engraver Nathaniel Hurd (1729-1777), which predates the instrument by at least eight years. The paper compass card is printed: "East End of the MARKET BOSTON Made by Andw. NEWELL" around a view of Boston with ships and the Boston Harbor lighthouse in the central medallion, over "N. Hurd Sct." in script. The card has thirty-two rays marking thiry-two points of the heavens with the East emphasized by engraved scrolls and the north with a fleur-de-lis, features typically found only on nautical instruments. The design of this central medallion is similar to Hurd's seal of the Boston Marine Society (1754), and there is an identical example of this compass at the Yale University Art Gallery.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+96.004 |
