Description

Mid nineteenth century ship?s compass by Robert Merrill New York. Dry card mounted within a dry green painted turned wooden bowl. The gimbaled compass has a fleur de lis at ?North?. It’s fitted to a pine dovetailed box with sliding top in old attic surface.
Robert Merrill ( 1838-1864) was the leading nautical instrument maker in the U.S. during the middle decades of the nineteenth century. The firm became Robert Merrill & Sons in 1865, and continued under similar names until 1923.