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 buy, sell, and deal in antique surveying
instruments and related science and technology antiques. In addition
to this informational website we operate
www.Patented-Antiques.com.
We conduct our antique surveying instrument sales and other antique
sales from that site. Our website is one of the largest antique
sales websites on the internet dealing in surveying related antiques
and other tool and technology related antiques.
If you are in the market to buy vintage
and antique surveying instruments please visit that page. If you
have surveying instruments or other related tool & technology related
antiques you would like to sell please visit that page to see how we
conduct our consignment sales. If you would like to consign
with us and have additional questions please see the
FAQ page
and other informational pages at either site or contact us.
If you have an antique surveyor's instruments and
equipment to sell, please contact us at
LCM@AntiqBuyer.com
or at the phone number above and we can 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.
Surveyor's compasse
s
like the Gurley compass to the right are a good example. 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 on the right.
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 located along the Eastern seaboard or
had access to large bodies of water or seaways such as New York, Boston,
and Philadelphia.
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 along the Eastern Seaboard 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. It is documented that
David Rittenhouse 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 very difficult to
find.
The earliest American makers and pioneers in the development of surveying
instruments were "Yankee's" in the truest sense of the word. Wood
was utilized for several reasons, availability and ease of construction
being the main ones. 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 compasses originated from the New England
area. Many of these first American made surveying instruments
are seeming crude and rudimentary, but have a sense and presence that
once appreciated and understood make them very appealing.
They made do with the materials at hand. There are some good examples
pictured and discussed at the Smithsonian's site dealing with this subject.
These earliest wooden American compasses 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. All are very desirable.
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 engraved points or
arrows leading to them 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. As activity moved West, so did makers of surveying
instruments. 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. Instruments by all three of these west coast
makers are becoming hard to find and some can command very strong prices.
The list and examples of known compass makers 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
There is also a lot of compasses pictured and described
at the Smithsonian's site.
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
