RARE IMPORTANT Early American T.S Bowles Surveyor’s Compass Circumferentor, NR

…… If you are a student of early American Surveyors then you may already know about, Thomas Salter Bowles (1785-1853). Born in Portsmouth New Hampshire he became a Mathematical Instrument Maker and has a shop on Portsmouth which was in business till 1821. After searching the net I found that instruments by Thomas Bowles are very rare and only four other examples of a Surveyor’s Compass are known to exist and they are all in museums. The example we are listing is a recent discovery and has never been in a collection before. All the examples on line were just like the example we are listing except for one important feature. The compass we are listing retains its original pine wood cover. This cover is the one thing that has saved the long, N & S Pointer, since the glass has been missing for many years.