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Lot 7

EARLY SEA CAPTAIN'S BACKSTAFF.

21 September 2015, 13:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$3,125 inc. premium

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EARLY SEA CAPTAIN'S BACKSTAFF.

English, 1735, signed "Made by Will Garner for Robert Duesbery 1735." 25" long, in dark hardwood with arcs and plaque in contrasting boxwood. Large arc divided every five arcminutes from 0° to 25°, with a scale of transversals for accurate interpolation. Punched with decorative fleur-de-lys and rosettes. A few chips at old break in small shadow arc, modern replacement sight vanes in light wood.

The backstaff, a great improvement over the cross staff, allowed a navigator to measure the sun's altitude with the sun at one's back, thus saving one's eyesight. It further eliminated the cross staff's problem of parallax and difficulty of simultaneously sighting two widely separated objects (the sun and horizon for example). The maker, William Garner, is known for three other backstaves, dated 1732, 1734, and 1737.

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