This is nice Benjamin Pike & Son Plain Compass. The compass was likely made circa 1845. The compass comes with all the necessary accessories - a hand made box, a very nice 33 ft Gunter chain, a good number of hand carved wood stakes (drop pins used with the chain), and a Sharkskin drafting kit (probably circa 1845 as well) that has 3 items in it. All together, the compass and accessories would make for an awesome display!

The compass is smallish - measuring 12.75 inches long with a 4.75 inch needle.

An early owner signed and dated the box lid in 1868. The name is a bit hard to read. I suspect you could figure it out by running some different name searches thru Google and Ancestry.com

The box is pretty neat, and is tied shut by old leather laces.

Right now I only put the compass in the box, and the compass is a pretty tight fit. Based on some drilled holes in the box and lid, plus some of the coloration on the lid, I suspect that the sight vanes were stored inside the box as well. I didn't invest the time to figure it out however. You might need some small wood blocks to make everything work right.

The Compass was missing its needle lifter thumbscrew and socket holder thumbscrew when I acquired it. I had very nice replacements made by a skilled professional.

Please see my Benjamin Pike Makers Webpage for more info about the Pike family of makers.