Thomas Tuttell

Trade card: Tho. Tutell, Charring Cross, London. Print of early Scientific Instruments (Engraved by Tuttell). 'Mathematical Instrumt. maker to ye Kings most excellt. Majesty'. more than 60 instruments depicted. Each illustration is numbered as if the picture was a catalogue. Vignette shows surveying instruments in use. (Calv. 408)

Tuttell had a short but productive career as a mathematical instrument-maker at the turn of the 18th century. ‘Mathematical’ instruments included drawing instruments, rules, surveying instruments, navigational instruments, timekeepers and models such as globes and armillary spheres, all pictured here. Soon after this the models used for demonstration were referred to as ‘philosophical’ instruments, leaving ‘mathematical’ to mean instruments used in trade by surveyors, navigators, excise men, etc.