11 ¾ Inch Pillar frame Sextant by Troughton London
Large pillar frame on a Tripod stand, contained in same box. 'Troughton London nr 119 '
Type of object:
Sextant
Time period:
Britain rules the waves + France
Place:
London
Date:
1795
Maker / Author:
John and Edward Troughton
Publisher / Printer:
Idem
Dimensions:
29.8 cm radius sextant
Material:
Graduation:
scale from -5 to 140° every 05° measuring to 125 °. Brass Vernier to 15’’ zero to the right
Inscription:
Troughton London; Marked nr 119 on central stut
Provenance:
London
References:
Sextants of Greenwich Mörzer Bruyns
https://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ebook/e/2005/gausscd/html/Katalog.pdf pag 165
Description
Anodised brass straight-bar-pattern pillar frame ( 24 pillars), wooden handle. Including ea big tripod Stand in Brass with two counterweights. Five telescope and one magnifying glass. All fitted together in a mahogany keystone box with some small damages.
Four shades for index glass. Tree shades for the horizon are missing.
In the lid there is a trade label of John Bruce, Instrument maker in Liverpool
Additional information
The Troughton brothers were active in London around about 1800. Edward Troughton (b.1765) carried on the business of instrument making after the death of his equally famous older brother, John, in 1788. By 1824, getting on in years, he took into partnership William Simms (b. 1793), describing him to an acquaintance as “the best craftsman he knew.” Troughton died in 1835 and Simms in 1860, but the business carried on as Troughton and Simms until 1916, when it became a Limited Company. It merged with T Cooke and Sons of York in 1922, to become the famous firm of instrument makers, Cooke, Troughton and Simms, with manufacturing being carried out in York, and offices and service centres in London and throughout the then British Empire.
From the book: The Nautical sextant van W.J. Morris
