Beautiful Compass Made by the First Family of Early American Surveying Compass Makers

The Chandlee family made some of the most beautiful and now valuable surveying compasses after the Revolutionary War. Goldsmith Chandlee might be the most famous maker of early surveying instruments. His instruments are a work of art. Goldsmith's compasses typically sell for $15,000 on up. I think I saw one that sold for $70,000. The surveying compass that Goldsmith made for George Washington, with the Washington name on it, is priceless I suspect.

Goldsmith Chandlee had a son, Benjamin Goldsmith, who made instruments as well, no doubt training under his dad. Benjamin's instruments look eerily like those made by Goldsmith. So much so that one auctioneer has speculated that Goldsmith made some instruments for Benjamin while Benjamin was operating as Goldsmith & Holloway (see story below).

Here is what Smart says about Benjamin in his book (Makers of Surveying Instruments):

Benjamin Chandlee ID, the son of Goldsmith Chandlee, was born in Winchester on March 5, 1780. He died in Baltimore on April 18,1822.
He is listed in the Baltimore directories from 1814-1822 as a clock and mathematical instrument maker. From 1819-1822 he was a member of the firm of Chandlee and Holloway (Robert Holloway).

Offered here is a compass made by Chandlee & Holloway, which was a firm that existed from 1819 until 1822. The compass is 14.5 inches long, with a compass dial of 6 inches and a 5 inch needle. One of the sight vanes has some minor surface cracks - please take a close looks at the pics below, where you can see the cracks. One of the arms is bent slightly - see the last pic below. You can't really see the bend unless you are looking at the compass from the side.

The dial at the south part of the compass counts Perches/Poles, which were 16.5 feet each. Goldsmith's compasses frequently had this counter - he might have invented this type of counter. Using a 33 foot chain, the surveyor would advance the dial one time for every 10 chains (330 feet). Each time the surveyor advanced the dial, the dial would show an additional 20 perches/poles (another 330 feet). When the dial showed 320 perches/poles, the surveyor knew he had gone 5280 feet, or 1 mile. This dial therefore was really neat way for the surveyor to keep track of how far he had surveyed.