Live Auction 5428Travel, Science & Natural History
A rare Italian 17th-century brass protractor-square
Lot 292

A rare Italian 17th-century brass protractor-square

BY GIACOMO LUSVERG (C. 1636-1689), DATED 1688

Closed23 April 2008

Price Realised

GBP 2,750

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A rare Italian 17th-century brass protractor-square
by Giacomo Lusverg (c. 1636-1689), dated 1688
the degrees divided to 0°30', numbered by 10°, 0°-140° on the protractor then 140°-180° on the square, inner non-linear scale numbered by 1, 3-12 on the inside of the protractor, both sides of the square carrying scales, the reverse decorated with engraved foliage and green-man, signed Iacobus Lusuerg Faciebat Romæ 1686.
4½in. (11.5cm.) long

Sale, Christie's South Kensington, 27 September 1990, lot 246.

Specialist note

Giacomo Lusuerg established himself as an instrument-maker in Modena, later moving to Rome, where he lived and worked from 1672 until his death in 1689 and manufactured 'very fine surveying and astronomical instruments' (J. Bennett The Divided Circle (Oxford: 1987), p. 77).