Early 19th Century Antique E.S. Ritchie Brass Compass

19th Century Indian etched brass Qibla compass. The compass with brass needle and glass cover, the reverse engraved with tables. 4.2 inches high 2.3 wide A qibla (qiblah) compa...

Antique ships compass with interesting Dutch lettering. Spun brass bowl with gimbal. Fitted to a primitive dovetailed box. Circa 1880. With compas...

19th century, compass and sundial together.

19th century compass and sundial together.

Cross-legged reduction compass, of chrome plated brass and steel, English manufacture from the end of the 19th century. Fixed or mobile center, whose opposite points form simple re...

Rare yacht binnacle with a highly polished gimballed compass fitted to a varnished box. The box has a polished brass side burner and hinges, hooks, and screws. First class nautical r...

Pre World War I Nautical Compass by E.S.Ritchie Nautical compass mounted by a brass gimbal into a copper brass bound case with sloping glazed aperture with heavily bevelled glass. Flat brass bezel with five holding screws signed ‘E.S.Ritchie’ and numbered 5779. Side opening compartment for a lighted wick with drawer beneath. The compass is mounted in a heavy painted brass bowl with very fine copper pivot supporting the floating direction card. A diaphragm is located in the base of the bowl for temperature compensation. c.1910 E.S.Ritchie founded the business in 1850 to manufacture mechanical, electrical and scientific instruments. In 1857 he turned his attention to navigational instruments and begun making marine bearing compasses for the U.S.Navy before the American civil war. At the time the British admiralty dry mounted nautical compasses were considered by all navies and commercial shipping companies as the highest technological standard of the day, however, in 1860 Ritchie had received a US patent for the first successful and practical liquid-filled marine compass for general use. A major step forward in the technology of the compass. With the damping provided by the liquid, together with gimbal mounting, the floating card of the Ritchie compass...

Brass Hanukkah lamp Menorah, Poland, circa 1810. Cast in Bench form, on four feet. The backplate is cast and pierced featuring scrollwork. This lamp was made by the technique known as "sand casting". This process begins with a wooden mold that was carved out to create negative space, which in turn is used to make the inverse form or shape to be used for the casting of metal. The mold is pressed into fine sand mixed with clay, then removed, and molten brass poured into the impression. When a mold wears out, a casting from that mold is often used as the mold for the next generation. Those later lamps...

The French Churches and Chapels were using these religious lecterns from which the Holy Bible was read.

Pair of antique brass scales standing on a mahogany base. A brass centre column having a shaped arm to the left holding a removable brass bowl. Th...