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Complete and intact brass calipers (compass/navigational dividers), ex-Atocha (1622), ex-Caesar's Pa

Currency:USD Category:Artifacts / Shipwreck Artifacts Start Price:5,000.00 USD Estimated At:6,000.00 - 9,000.00 USD
Complete and intact brass calipers (compass/navigational dividers), ex-Atocha (1622), ex-Caesar's Pa
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Complete and intact brass calipers (compass/navigational dividers), ex-Atocha (1622), ex-Caesar's Palace (1987). 16.64 grams total. 4¼" long. Complete, intact, and fully functional, this piece consists of two long, thin arms emanating from interlocking round tops rotating on a pin, a navigational device used to measure point-to-point distances on mariner's charts. This artifact was among the first selected to be sold on behalf of major investors after the "Mother Lode" find of 1985, in the lesser-known "Caesar's Palace" auction of 1987 in Las Vegas that preceded the larger Christie's sale of June 1988 in New York. In fact these dividers (described in 1987 as "in good working condition) are very similar to a pair that sold as lot 18 in the Christie's auction, touted as recovered from the same "pilot's chest" in the wreck that no doubt yielded the present piece. Its rarity and importance are enhanced by an impressive display box. From the Atocha (1622), with original Fisher photo-certificate SR 1247, pedigreed to the Caesar's Palace (Butterfield & Butterfield, Las Vegas) auction "Mel Fisher's Treasures of the Atocha" of September 1987, with original lot-tag 203, housed in a padded glass-and-wood display box with brass latch.