Lot 228
Surveying
Two manuscript surveyor's manuals, early 19th century
Auction: From the Library of Professor Roland Paxton | 01 October 2026 from 10am | Lots 221 to 252
Description
1) Quarto (25.2 x 20cm), contemporary mottled half calf, 307 pp., written in early 19th-century copperplate hand on paper watermarked ‘1816,’ faint traces of pencil ruling, with numerous diagrams including 1 map on a folded plate, pencil ownership inscriptions on first page of Joseph Hitching or Hitchings, dated 1817, text in two sections ‘Surveying of land’ and ‘Gauging,’ with first section divided into 5 parts, dealing with standard problems measuring irregularly-shaped areas, the use of a theodolite and cross-staff in surveying land and a city, the gauging section covers use of a slide-rule, with c. 40 blank leaves at end, upper board worn and joint cracking slightly;
2) Folio ledger book (37.6 x 24.5cm), vellum-bound, royal arms gilt to covers, front cover annotated ‘Representation Book, Edinburgh, 20th April 1759’, [2] 122 pp., paper ruled in red, diagrams, tables and mathematical workings throughout, first leaf with ownership inscriptions of one Joseph Purdie, Clifton School, 1815, headings include ‘Rule of the Parabola’, ‘Resolution of Force’, ‘Geometrical Problems', ‘Mensuration’, ‘Of Logarithms', and ‘Plain Trigonometry’, with passages including discussions of waterwheels and windmills (the waterwheel at Blair Drummond, Stirling, mentioned at p. 55), covers soiled and sprung, occasional damp-staining to contents, with later pencilled annotations to the front pastedown and first leaf suggesting a link to the lead-mining community of Clifton, near Tyndrum, Perthshire (2)
Provenance
From the collection of the late Professor Roland Paxton MBE FICE FRSE (1932-2025), 'Britain's foremost historian of civil engineering' (Telegraph, obituary, 12th November 2025); Professor Paxton was also a leading conservationist of Britain's engineering heritage, and led successful campaigns to restore two of the world's most important railway structures, the Laigh Milton Viaduct in Ayrshire, the world's oldest surviving railway bridge, and the Union Chain Bridge, the world's oldest suspension bridge still carrying road traffic.