Beautiful Compass Made by Rittenhouse & Evans

The following two paragraphs are based on Bedini's Article on BR and his Business Partners and Apprentices:

After Potts left the Rittenhouse shop and moved away from Worcester Township, Benjamin Rittenhouse next hired his own nephew, Benjamin Evans, who had just achieved the age of fourteen. Benjamin Evans (1776-1836) was the son of David and Benjamin Rittenhouse's sister, Eleanor Rittenhouse, who had married the Philadelphia blacksmith Daniel Evans.

When young Benjamin Evans was six years of age, his family had relocated to David Rittenhouse's farm in Norriton. Benjamin Rittenhouse was then living in the adjoining Worcester Township. In 1790 Benjamin Evans became an apprentice of his uncle Benjamin, who trained him as a clock and instrument maker. It was during this period that Benjamin Rittenhouse appeared to be concentrating on the production of surveying instruments. Evans completed his apprenticeship in 1797. The next year he became a journeyman clockmaker and his uncle took him in as a partner in the clock shop. Instruments in this period bore the signature "Rittenhouse & Evans. Instruments with these signatures are in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Jeff Lock stated that there are seven known Rittenhouse & Evans Compasses - four of them are pictured below.

Like BR's compasses, the compasses made by BR and his partners are Eye-Candy. This isn't surprising since BR trained his two main partners (Potts and Evans) before entering into a partnership with each one of them.

Nobody knows how many compasses BR and his partners made. The compasses made by BR and his partners are all high quality and mostly vernier compasses. They are all lustworthy, just like a BR branded compasses. They seem to fall in the same price range too.