Part of a Rare Brass Theodolite by Peregrine White

Description:

Part of a Rare Brass Theodolite by Peregrine White, signed on the limb P White, the silvered 5-inch dia. dial with engraved central Tudor Rose motif in riband, sixteen-point rose with hatched highlights, fleur-de-lis at North, blued-steel needle with painted N / S directionals and agate hub, needle ring with punched divisions 0-90° through four quadrants, compass box rotating on slim beveled limb with opposing scroll-cut terminals (one scroll sheared off),staff-mount and screwed-in folding sights, lg. 13 3/ 4 in.

Note: Peregrine White (1747-1834),a descendant of the first European child born in Cape Cod Harbor in 1620, served an apprenticeship and worked as a silversmith, clock and mathematical instrument maker in Boston. After being accused of forging silver spoons, he left Boston and settled in Woodstock, Connecticut, where he established his own shop west of Muddy Brook Village. The abbreviated Tudor Rose motif has also been recorded on a surveyor's compass by John Dupee of Boston.
The beveled-edge limb would originally have been used to take readings from a scale on the horizontal plate, which has been removed (probably a first generation repair),converting the theodolite to a compass.
Literature: Silvio Bedini, (Thinkers and Tinkers, plate 37.
Estimate $6,000-8,000

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