215 (detail)


215 (detail)


215 215.


A RARE 5¾IN. RADIUS VERNIER SEXTANT BY HEATH & WING, LONDON, CIRCA 1765


the lacquered-brass frame of one-piece ‘T’-bar construction, signed on the cross bar Heath & Wing Londini Fecit, the arc divided -5°-0°-125°, Vernier scale with left-aligned ‘0’ and central index, foliate engraved index arm, arm stop, double pinhole sight, three shades, two mirrors and three pad feet, contained in original fitted mahogany slope-fronted keystone box with green baize lining and decorative lock escutcheon -- 8 x 8½in. (20.3 x 21.5cm.)


Provenance: With Tesseract (catalogue 82, September 2006 item 19)


Literature: Mörzer Bruyns: Sextants at Greenwich, Oxford University Press 2009, item 134, p.163.


Thomas Heath (c.1700-1773) and Tycho Wing (1726-1776) formed a partnership in 1751 which lasted until Heath’s death. As is evidenced by this sextant, they produced high-quality instruments to good design. This sextant, which retains some of its original lacquer, is very early for the genre and produced at a time when most makers were still producing wooden back-staffs and octants and dividing on detached ivory scales. The small radius, coupled with the fact that Ramsden had yet to build his division engine, may have made this an ambitious instrument that had yet to be trusted by its owner as the condition is so original.


£2500-3500 215 additional images online at www.charlesmillerltd.com 79


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