Ross London Pocket Compass with Leather Box - in HIGH Tide or Low Tide I’LL BE by Your Side - Vintage Style Engraved Compass - Adventure Compass - Antique Style Gift Compass

Product Information

In good condition, the English cross bar needle pivots on a gemstone bearing for reduced friction, above an aluminium dial divided into four 90 degree quadrants, protected by a clean glass crystal.

The maker is a Louis Paschel Casella who worked in Hatton Garden from 1844 and is a very collectable name, particularly as the firm is still operating today, albeit on a more hi-tech basis. The compass is engraved 'ANGLO-SWISS ASSOCIATION No. 45553, 1915' on the base and stamped with the War department military arrow. After duty in South Africa, he was sent in 1904 as the War Office representative with the Russian army in Manchuria traveling extensively across Russia. His final visit before the October Revolution came in October 1916, when he had an audience with Tsar Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov at his headquarters in Mogilev.

The double broad arrow also shows it was later officially decommissioned for sale into the civilian market. It comes with the original leather case also numbered 419, which carries the War Department arrow showing that it was military issue.

Ross also made some cameras from about 1855 to the late 1930s. A range of Ross Standard Reflex cameras is listed with an illustration in the 1935 British Journal Photographic Almanac, the sizes ranged from 3 + 1⁄ 2 by 2 + 1⁄ 2 inches (89mm ×64mm) up to half plate. [ quantify] Dating to the late 19th century, the compass itself has no makers marks, but it is identical to similar ones produced by Francis Barker & Son, so very likely made by them. PriceWood cased compasses are for the most part unsigned, but this is a very nice Mariners style compass in a mahogany case which has a makers name reading ‘ Casella, London, Instrument maker to the Admiralty’ around the dial centre.