About compasses

Welcome to compasscollector

The magnetic properties of ferrous materials have been known about for well over two thousand years.  Just like the wheel no one really knows who or precisely when the compass was invented.  My own personal favourite contender for devising the compass was the Chinese scholar who wrote on a wide variety of topics including mathematics, music, astronomy, calendars, cartography, geology, optics and medicine – Shen Kua (1031-1095).
However new research of mine reveals that the real story of the origins of the compass may have been much more evolutionary.

You will find plenty of material on this website that discusses a range compass issues.

Frequently I am asked to value compasses. Whilst I am willing to assist, it is important that you do your own research, that is part of the hobby and in my view makes it so rewarding. My initial advice is to make use of the internet and do some research there.

Auction houses local to you, will be helpful, since they are regularly in contact with the market and most now use the internet and have online auctions. This results in a greater understanding of the market.

When determining the age of a compass, I find there are lots of pitfalls. It is easy to make assumptions that lead you to the wrong date. When I examine my own collection, I can appreciate that I have in the past made assumptions of the date of a compass that were false. There are no hard and fast rules, magnetic declination is helpful, but is not commonly used consistently, catalogues where they exist are helpful, but in general are only available for the past 200 years.

Finally I need to comment on originality. There is a growing market in reproduction compasses and to the novice it can be daunting when the marketing of these compasses is built on brands and trade names that no longer exist. In my experience the only way to be confident about the originality of the compass you are looking is to do your research.