The Compleat Surveyor - Books & Instruments

My dad's collection of English language surveying books may have been the finest and most complete in the world. In addition to Rathborne's, The Surveyor (1616), the collection included, for example:


1582 Worsop Formerly owned by the famous C.E. Kenney, who wrote "The is the rarest of all English surveying 'books'" above his signature. There is only one other known copy (Yale).	1653 Leybourn This is a first edition of The Compleat Surveyor. An extremely rare book - I have never seen reference to a copy outside of library. This book may be signed by the author, but have not tried to authenticate the signature.


1666 Wing (Second Edition) If the 1582 Worsop is the rarest of all English surveying books, the 2nd Edition Wing is in second place. Almost all copies of this book were lost in the great fire in London in 1666 - a fact noted by his publisher, Leybourn, in a 1674 book (also included in my dad's collection). There are only two other known copies of Wing's 1666 book - both reside in US libraries.	1840 Iowa Survey Instructions This is the only known copy of this book - an important historical precursor to the 1855 Survey Instructions.

My dad's collection includes First Editions of most of the pre-1800 English surveying books, and First and other Editions of almost every American surveying book published prior to 1945. It is an amazing collection, the likes of which will not be seen again. My dad catalogued almost 1600 books and related items - but a lot of uncatalogued stuff will be included as well (reference materials, dealer catalgoues, phamplets, etc).

Special attention items:

1. Eyre's, The Exact Surveyor (1654)

2. Wyld's, The Practical Surveyor (1725) (Showing Instruments)

3. Hammond's, The Practical Surveyor (1731) (Showing Instruments)

4. Gardiner's, Practical Surveying Improved (1737) (Wye level introduced)

5. Love's, Geodaesia (1793 - First American Edition)

6. Moore's, Accurate System of Surveying (1796 - First Book by American Author)

7. Mudge's, Trig Survey of England - all 3 Volumes (1799 - 1811)

8. A Full Set of USGLO Survey Instructions

INVENTORY & ESTIMATE OF VALUE

The 1500 books my dad catalogued are reflected in the links below. I have found a handful of book that were not catalogued. Everything valuable seems to be catalogued however.

My dad watched the market value of antique surveying instruments and books like a hawk for more than 25 years. He authored the Illustrated Price Guide to Antique Surveying Instruments and Books (1980), and then developed the MarketWatch listings found on this website. (I have not updated MarketWatch for about 18 months - my dad nonetheless continued to record all transactions right up until February 2006). My dad was addicted to Ebay, and built a huge database of Ebay surveying related transactions.

Using this Ebay auction information, my dad estimated the values for the items in his collection on an on-going basis. He tracked his inventory of books and their values in the same database. He last updated the database in late 2005. WE ARE NOT SELLING INDIVIDUAL BOOKS AT THE PRICES BELOW. We are providing these estimates as a datapoint. Here are the books being sold along with my dad's estimate of values:

Book Inventory (Sorted by Value)

Book Inventory (Sorted by Year Published)

(SOLD TO A COLLECTOR - April 2006)

Russ Uzes

Mill Valley CA

Russ Email