Rare Surveying Compass by Daniel King

Description:

Rare Surveying Compass by Daniel King, Salem, with 5 1/2-inch compass card indistinctly marked Made and Sold by Daniel King in Salem, New England, divided 0-90 in four quadrants, with fleur-de-lis to North, scrolls to East and seven illuminated compass points with figures representing Grammar, Logick, Geometry, Arithematick, Astronomy, Rhetorick and Musicke, birch body with staff-mount and two sight vanes, lg. 14 1/2 in., (old split to side, glass cracked).

Note: Daniel King (1704-1790) of Salem, Massachusetts, was a maker of mathematical instruments and a "teacher of mathematics." He was succeeded in business by his son Benjamin King (1740-1804).

Literature: Silvio A. Bendini, Thinkers and Tinkers, Early American Men of Science, (1975),p. 209 for illustration of a similar (marine) compass dated 1744.
Estimate $3,000-4,000

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