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

On the underside is written faintley " W Lee. London Road Reading, Berks", there looks to be additional, illegible text written ( see photo).

Andrew Ross (1798–1859) founded his company in 1830; from 1840 he began producing camera lenses signed "A. Ross". During his lifetime, the company was one of the foremost lens manufacturers. The year after his death in 1859, his son-in-law John Henry Dallmeyer left the firm to establish his own optical company and the company was run by Ross's son, Thomas, and became known as Ross & Co. By the 1890s it was also making Zeiss and Goerz lenses under licence for sale in the UK and the British Empire. Ross patented a wide-angle lens design and Zeiss took this further to produce their EWA Protars. Before World War 1, Ross and Zeiss worked quite closely together, but at the outbreak of War the British Government put Ross in control of the newly opened Carl Zeiss binocular and optical factory in Mill Hill, London.

The compass is engraved 'ANGLO-SWISS ASSOCIATION No. 45553, 1915' on the base and stamped with the War department military arrow. The lid is attached by small hand made square hinges, fastened with a 7 shaped brass clasp and the paper compass rose is divided into four 90 degree quadrants, showing all the points of the compass with a fleur de lys for North.

A rare design of compass by a well respected maker, its' signed Short & Mason Ltd, London on the underside. After Andrew died the firm was run by his son T. R. Ross, and the lenses were engraved Ross, London. J. H. Dallmeyer, who had married Ross's second daughter, Hannah, inherited one third of his employer's large fortune and the telescope manufacturing portion of the business.

PERSONAL GIFTS

In very good condition including its leather case, this is a substantial instrument, which weighs 500 grams including the case, and measures 70mm in diameter across the main body. Price After his death in 1956, his widow presented the compass to Lt. Col. Edwin Harold Bowen in 1963 ( see photo for paperwork). Bowen had served as a Major and Captain (Deputy Commissaries) in the Corp of Royal Pakistani Army during World War II, he was awarded an OBE in 1954 before retiring with an honorary rank of Lt Colonel in 1955.