Description: Dry card compass marked C. Plath, Hamburg housed in the original pine box with dovetailed corners. N, S, O(E) and W marked on the card along with hand inscribed points between.

History: The C.Plath company was originally founded in Hamburg in 1837 by David Filby, son of an innkeeper in Husum on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein in North Germany. David Filby traded in nautical literature, charts and sextants imported from England.Carl Christian Plath, to whom David Filby sold his highly reputable business in 1862, was born on Christmas Day in 1825. His father was the pastor of the Michaeliskirche in Hamburg "New Town", a church known to seamen all over the world as the "Hamburger Michel". On leaving school he began an apprenticeship as an instrument maker in Hamburg. After completion his apprenticeship, Carl Plath, following the custom of the time, went on his travels to Berlin, Vienna, Prague and Munich before he set up a workshop for the production of surveying instruments in 1857.When Carl Plath purchased Filby's business in 1862 he sold his own business to his former employee J. C. Dennert. With his new business Carl Plath concentrated on the manufacture of sextants, magnetic compasses, binnacles and barometers. In August 1887 Carl Plath was awarded a German Reich Patent for his newly developed compass card.In 1882, three years after Filby's death, Carl Plath sold the nautical literature and charts department of the business to the newly established firm of Eckardt & Messtorff, a bookshop which still exists today.Gold Medal for nautical instruments Carl Plath was awarded the Gold Medal at the Hamburg Crafts and Industry Exhibition in 1889 for his nautical instruments, in particular for the excellent precision work. Also in 1889 Carl Plath's son, Theodor Christian Plath, born in 1868, became co-owner of the company. Silver Medal of the highest distinction for nautical instruments Carl and Theodor Plath exhibited a collection of nautical instruments in the Pavilion of the German Shipping Exhibition at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900 and were awarded the Silver Medal as mark of the highest distinction for nautical instruments in commercial shipping.

Provenance: N/A

Dimensions: Weight (Pounds & Ounces) = 5.83 | Height(in) = 5.5 | Width(in) = 8 | Depth(in) = 8

Size of Artwork(in): 5.5 x 8 x 8"

Artist Name: C. Plath, Hamburg

Medium: Wood, brass, glass

Circa: C. 1875

Very good retaining nearly all of its original lacquer.