Photo by David Friend Productions, San Diego, California
CIVIL WAR ERA AMERICAN-MADE U.S. NAVY SEXTANT by E. & G.W. BLUNT
05-001. American, before 1866, engraved in script on the arc ""E. & G. W. Blunt, New York" and "U. S.
NAVY 5292". Rigid edge bar frame, with black painted finish, 7" radius silver arc graduated from -5
to 130 degrees with readout by vernier to 10 arcsec, swing-away magnifier, tangent screw control, 4
square index mirror glass filters, 3 round horizon mirror glass filters and ebonized wood handle.
Also included in the case are a short telescopic eyepieces, a peepsight eyepiece, a solar eyepiece
filter, and an adjusting tool, a pin wrench, and a screwdriver. The sextant is in very good overall
condition, with virtually all of its original finish. The original 11 1/4" x 12" x 5 1/8" hand
dovetailed sector-shaped fitted mahogany case is also in very good overall condition. Research in
US Navy records would probably identify the civil war era ship that this sextant was used on, based
on the 5292 serial number.
From the Smithsonian....... Edmund March Blunt opened a chart and instrument store in New
York in 1811. His sons, Edmund and George William Blunt, trading as E. & G. W. Blunt, opened a
similar store in 1824. In the early days, most of these instruments were imported. An advertisement
from 1837 states: "One of the firm is now in England superintending the manufacture of Theodolites,
Transit Instruments, etc., -and any orders for Instruments not now on hand, will be forwarded to
him, and executed promptly." In the mid-1850s, after having built a dividing engine, the Blunts
advertised that they could "divide Astronomical and Nautical Instruments to a degree of precision
which they will guarantee to be equal to the best of foreign make." The firm, with its dividing
engine, became Blunt & Nichols (in 1866), Blunt & Co. (in 1868), Eckel & Imhoff (in 1872), and H. A.
Kolesch (in 1885).
