Henry Browne & Son Hand Bearing Compass

Henry Browne and Son Ltd was founded in the nineteenth century and were based at Station Works, Wakering Road, Barking, Essex. They were respected British instrument makers, who made fine quality compasses, ships clocks, barometers, inclinometers, sextants and chandlery items for over 140 years; 'Sestrel' was the company Trademark. Henry Browne Ltd was sold to John Lilley & Gillie Ltd and SIRS Navigation, both UK companies, around 1975 when the marine instrument industry was being consolidated.

Identical compasses were supplied to the Royal Navy against NATO number 6605-99-527-5338 and being finished in battleship grey we speculate ours may have once served with the Royal Navy. The optical glass prism allows the user to take a sight on a distant object whilst simultaneously reading off the bearing, taken from the image of the compass card in the prism. The compass bowl is mounted on a solid teak handle with attached card holder (the card is now missing) to make notations. Unlike many of this pattern that we have seen, the compass oil remains and with no air bubbles and the compass card swings freely. Whilst we offer for sale as a collector's item we would say, subject to checks, it is good enough to go back to sea and used as intended. Alternative it would make a fine display item in a nautical or instrument collection. It would be hard to find a crisper example and offered at a fraction of the current maufacturing cost