Box with Compass Card

Gilbert, W. & T. (mentioned on object), c. 1810 - c. 1858

Houten doos met een kompasroos behorend bij azimutkompas. De kompasroos is gedrukt op groen papier; de graadverdeling, in vier kwadranten, is in spiegelschrift voor aflezing met het prismatisch vizier. De kompasroos heeft een metalen rand waarop de graden in 20' verdeeld zijn. Twee kompasrozen kunnen in het houten doosje worden bewaard onder twee metalen klemmen met de magnetische polen zo gericht dat de magnetische eigenschappen optimaal bewaard worden.

Artwork typebox, compass card
Object numberNG-MC-873-1
Dimensionsheight 5.5 cm x width 29.3 cm x depth 20 cm
Physical characteristicswood, brass, iron, lead, glass, precious stone and paper

Identification

Title(s)
Box with Compass Card
Object type
Object number
NG-MC-873-1
Description
Houten doos met een kompasroos behorend bij azimutkompas. De kompasroos is gedrukt op groen papier; de graadverdeling, in vier kwadranten, is in spiegelschrift voor aflezing met het prismatisch vizier. De kompasroos heeft een metalen rand waarop de graden in 20' verdeeld zijn. Twee kompasrozen kunnen in het houten doosje worden bewaard onder twee metalen klemmen met de magnetische polen zo gericht dat de magnetische eigenschappen optimaal bewaard worden.
Inscriptions / marks
- inscription, on the compass card box: ‘W. & T. GILBERT, / Mathematical Instrument / MAKERS AND OPTICIANS, / TO THE Hon.ble the East India Comp.y / 148, LEADENHALL STREET / LONDON.’
- inscription, on the compass card, back, handwritten, in ink: ‘North / South’
- inscription, on the compass card, front, printed: ‘W. & T. GILBERT, / 148, Leadenhall Street LONDON.’

Creation

Creation
instrument maker: Gilbert, W. & T. (mentioned on object), London
Dating
c. 1810 - c. 1858
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Material and technique

Physical description
wood, brass, iron, lead, glass, precious stone and paper
Dimensions
height 5.5 cm x width 29.3 cm x depth 20 cm

This work is about

Subject

Acquisition and rights

Copyright
Public domain
Provenance
...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

Documentation

E.G.R. Taylor, The Mathematical Practitioners of Hannoverian England 1714-1840, Cambridge 1966, p. 393, nr. 1339.

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Persistent URL

To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:
https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/20054014

Inscriptions

inscription, on the compass card box:W. & T. GILBERT, / Mathematical Instrument / MAKERS AND OPTICIANS, / TO THE Hon.ble the East India Comp.y / 148, LEADENHALL STREET / LONDON.
inscription, on the compass card, front, printed:W. & T. GILBERT, / 148, Leadenhall Street LONDON.
inscription, on the compass card, back, handwritten, in ink:North / South

Provenance

...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-873-1

Entry

Azimuth compass in a wooden box (NG-MC-873-2), with a separate tripod (NG-MC-873-3) and a compass card box (NG-MC-873-1).

The compass has a fixed pelorus. The eyesight is a combination of a prismatic sight for reading the card and a slit sight with red and a green darkening glass. The hair sight at the other side of the ring is equipped with an adjustable black mirror. The bowl is weighted with lead. Two different locking devices for the compass card are mounted in the bowl. One is a lever with a ring at the end around the pivot, which can lift the card off the pivot. The other is a simple spring pushed against the side of the card. The compass has two green compass cards, both made of paper. The scale, in four quadrants, is printed in mirror writing for the prismatic sight. One card has a metal rim on which the degrees are subdivided into twenty minute graduations. The cards are stored in a separate box beneath two iron clasps with their magnetic poles in a fixed position, so that their magnetic properties are preserved. The tripod has a fork in which the compass can be suspended in its gimbals.

This compass was known as the Patent Azimuth and Surveying Compass. The dating represents a problem, as the Dutch East India Company, as mentioned in one inscription, ceased to exist in 1800. The compass was probably purchased by Julius Constantijn Rijk (1787-1854) when he visited Portsmouth in 1825 in the sloop of war Pallas.¹J.C. Rijk, Generaal Rapport Z.M. Pallas, s.l. 1825, manuscript with 6 appendices in HSM, inv. no. NII (03144), Appendix VI. According to Obreen it was in regular use on board ships of the Dutch Navy.²J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 873.

Citation

(accessed 21 mei 2026 22:13:08 UTC+0).

Footnotes

¹J.C. Rijk, Generaal Rapport Z.M. Pallas, s.l. 1825, manuscript with 6 appendices in HSM, inv. no. NII (03144), Appendix VI.
²J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 873.