Bow Compass with Pen Point

This steel-spring instrument has an ivory handle, a point attached to one leg, and a penholder with adjusting screw on the other leg. The distance between the legs is adjusted with a pin and thumbscrew. The instrument resembles a Swiss bow pen sold around the turn of the 20th century by W. & L. E. Gurley (for $2.00) and by Keuffel & Esser (for $2.50). The manufacturer was probably not Kern & Co. of Aarau, Switzerland, as the Kern instruments advertised in the 1897 Sears Roebuck catalog have a different shape of ivory handle.

References: 1897 Sears Roebuck & Co. Catalogue (reprint; New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2007), 369; Catalogue and Price-List of Keuffel & Esser Co., 23rd ed. (New York, 1892), 31; Catalogue and Price-List of Keuffel & Esser Co., 33rd ed. (New York, 1909), 63; A Manual of the Principal Instruments . . . Manufactured by W. & L. E. Gurley, 37th ed. (Troy, N.Y., 1903), 289; A Manual of the Principal Instruments . . . Manufactured by W. & L. E. Gurley, 39th ed. (Troy, N.Y., 1906), 289. This instrument does not appear in the 1921 K&E and 1912 Gurley catalogs.

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