Early Victorian Cased Maritime Artificial Horizon by George Dollond of London

For sale an early Victorian cased maritime artificial horizon by George Dollond, 59 St Paul’s Churchyard, London.

This top quality instrument is comprised of a mahogany hinged case with original lock and key and additional hook and eye fixings to the front. Contained within the box a black painted metal tray and triangular lid (signed to Dollond) with a two paned glass top to enable viewing and to protect it from the elements aboard ship. The box also contains its original turned boxwood circular case for the safe storage of mercury.

Inside the lid, there are two trade labels, the first to George Dollond, a descendant of one of the most famous British instrument making families. The label states, “G Dollond, Optical, Mathematical and philosophical Instrument Maker, To Her Majesty, 59 St Paul’s churchyard, London”.

The second label is for the reseller, George Lee & Son. Their label states, “George Lee & Son, Manufacturers of Mathematical, Optical & Nautical Instruments, to the honourable Corporation of the Trinity House & the Admiralty, Ordnance Row, The Hard, Portsea & 3 Palmerston Road, Southsea”.

The history of the artificial horizon can be traced back to the sixteenth century but developments were largely popularised in the eighteenth century by John Hadley, John Elton and by the famous instrument maker, George Adams, the latter of whom is merited in 1738 with inventing the mercury trough of which this is an example. It was devised as a means of navigation when the horizon was obscured by darkness or through the effect of inclement weather.

Its principle was based upon the first law of optics, that the angle of reflection from a mirror is equal to the angle of incidence, therefore a sextant would be employed to measure the angle between the sun or the stars and their reflection on the mercury contained in the metal trough. Although the instrument was dogged by criticism relating to the tremoring of the mercury when excessive movement was involved, it must have proved popular enough owing to its continuing manufacture by leading instrument makers such as George Dollond.

The Dollond family dynasty begins in the UK with the migration of Jean Dollond, a Huguenot weaver fleeing religious persecution in France. His son John (1706 – 1761) was also brought up a silk weaver but was took an avid interest in the science of optics and quickly gained huge respect amongst amateurs and professionals for his knowledge and writings on the subject.

Peter, his son having grown up surrounded by his Father’s interests was perhaps an unwilling apprentice silk weaver. It is assumed that he completed his training but his inherited passion for science, culminated in 1750 with him opening a small optical business in Vine Street, Spitalfields which ran for two years before his father could no longer resist the temptation to join his son’s enterprise. The partnership between John and Peter was formed in 1752 and the premises was moved to Exeter Exchange off The Strand.

As Dollond and Son and with John Dollond’s focus solely on the business of instrument making, he first improved the design of the Savery’s heliometer calling it a “divided object glass micrometer” which allowed accurate measurement of the distance of the sun. It proved a huge success and was used by Captain James Cook on his Australia voyage. He followed up that success with his work on chromatic aberration in refracting telescopes and his invention of the achromatic lens brought the company even greater success following the successful patenting of the invention. For his efforts, John was also awarded the Copley Medal by the Royal Society and was later elected a Fellow. A Royal Appointment to George III quickly followed but sadly, John was unable to enjoy the fruits of his labour for long, he died in 1761 at the age of 55 from a stroke.

Following John’s death,