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Daniel Boone: Personally-Owned Compass with Provenance....
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Sold on Feb 25, 2023 for:
$109,375.00
Bid Source: Internet bidder
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Description
Daniel Boone: Personally-Owned Compass with Provenance. From one of the most legendary figures in American folklore is offered a compass once belonging to pioneer and frontiersman Daniel Boone. The history of this compass is well documented. Among the accompanying provenance are two detailed newspaper articles from the late 1930s, telling the story of the transfer of the compass' ownership from Daniel Boone to a young boy, Abraham Miller, who Boone befriended. Boone was so proud of the boy when he learned young Miller, age twelve years, had applied the shooting lessons Boone had taught him, killing a panther threatening the family's cattle, that he gave his compass to the boy as a present. The article pictures the compass and a photo of Abraham Miller in 1864 at age eighty-one. The article also traces the ownership of the compass directly from Abraham Miller to a James Mullen and then Claude Hensley, the owner at the time of the article's publication in 1939.Text from Robert Morgan's book Boone: A Biography further solidifies the connection between the Boone and Miller families. According to Morgan, Daniel Boone's father, Squire Boone, had a young apprentice named Henry Miller. Henry and Daniel became good friends, with Henry passing on his knowledge of blacksmithing and gunsmithing. Furthermore, around the first of June 1774, Boone was employed as a surveyor to mark out a claim of 4,000 acres of land in Kentucky. Boone was asked by then Governor of the Provence of Virginia, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, to warn other surveyors he encountered of the pending threat of Indian attack from the Indian War that was just breaking throughout the territory. Morgan writes, "Boone took Michael Stoner with him. Besides their rifles, supplies and a Gunter's chain for surveying distance, they must have carried a compass...they probably carried their compass concealed except when actually in use as they traveled down the Kentucky River keeping alert for signs of Indians as well as surveyors." The compass properly comports to other eighteenth-century pocket models and could date as early as the 1770s. It is housed in an attractive rosewood or poplar wood case measuring 2 1/4" x 2 1/8" x 5/8" deep. This is an extraordinary opportunity to own an important piece of historic Americana from a true American hero!
Condition: The case is in fine condition, wholly intact save for a missing small frontal piece of hardware that would have latched the two ends of the wood case. The instrument itself is well preserved with magnetic needle securely in place, typical light age to the interior paper dial.
References: Morgan, R., Boone: A Biography, 2008, page 32.
Auction Info
2023 February 25 - 26 Americana & Political Signature® Auction #6269 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
February, 2023
25th-26th
Saturday-Sunday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 17
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
Page Views: 4,544
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