Dreweatts Donnington Priory Salerooms
Lot 61
A Fine Victorian lacquered brass box sextant Cary, London, circa 1864 The circular top plate with screw for rack and pinion index mirror adjustment against a fine inset silver vernier scale with magnification arm, the circumference with sliding pinhole shutter revealing threaded telescope mounting aperture and levers for raising/lowering the coloured glass filters, the underside with further shuttered aperture to allow filter arms to move clear when not in use, the instrument enclosed by a threaded canister-shaped cover engraved with surveyor`s table to circumference and with presentation inscription Royal Military College, Presented to Gentleman Cadet William A. Law for Attention to and Progress in Military Surveying, June 1864 to top surface, complete with single-draw telescope attachment fitted with revolving filter selection to eyepiece, in original blue velvet lined mahogany presentation box, the instrument 7.2cm (3ins) diameter, the box 12cm (4.75ins) wide. The firm of William Cary is recorded in Clifton, Gloria Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851 as working from various addresses in the Strand, London 1789-1891. Gentleman Cadet William Arthur Law`s commission is recorded in The London Gazette (available online) `21st Foot, Gentleman Cadet William Arthur Law, from The Royal Military College, to be Ensign without purchase, vice Pollard, promoted, Dated 28th June 1864`, no further records of his service appear in the usual sources.
