A rare late 19th-Century lacquered-brass and mahogany-cased Tate's Patent Arithmometer,, A rare late 19th-Century lacquered-brass and mahogany-cased Tate's Patent Arithmometer,

A rare late 19th-Century lacquered-brass and mahogany-cased Tate's Patent Arithmometer,

Details

A rare late 19th-Century lacquered-brass and mahogany-cased Tate's Patent Arithmometer,
the sloping face stamped TATE'S PATENT ARITHMOMETER C. & E. LAYTON and C.A. BAYNON AGENT NEW YORK, designed for addition, multiplication, subtraction and division, with the capacity for 8 x 9 x 16 figures (three small turning knobs missing), the sliding plate made from 5/16-inch thick lacquered brass, mounted in the original heavy-duty mahogany carrying case with brass corner banding and carrying handles -- 24in. (61cm.) wide

See Colour Illustration

Literature

HORSBURG, E.M., Handbook of the Napier Tercentenary Celebration or Modern Instruments and Methods of Calculation (Tomash: Los Angeles, 1982) pp102-104

Lot Essay

This type of calculating machine was originally designed and introduced in 1820 by Chevalier Charles X Thomas do Colmar. It was the first multiplication machine to be made commercially for general sale. In 1883, S. Tate was the first in England to manufacture Thomas de Colmar-type arithmometers. His patents were taken over by C. & E. Layton, who incorporated further patented improvments. Tate's machines are generally considered to be the heaviest duty and best made of all the later nineteenth-century arithmometers, and indeed, the example offered here is in fine and smooth working order. They were primarily manufactured for use in the insurance industry.
Tate's Patent Arithmometers are quite uncommon in collections today as not a large number of these fine machines were ever made, and very few have survived in working condition. The last recorded auction sale was in 1991 at the Breker Auction in Germany.