Nautical Bygones

Description

Rare Early American Antique John Bliss & Co New York, Taffrail Log Complete with Original Spinner
Bronze & Brass
From around 1886 Serial number 239.

A fine example with enamel face. Very collectable.
John Bliss (1795-1857) was born in Connecticut, trained as a silversmith and clockmaker in Vermont, and began in business as a jeweler in New York around 1830. In 1834, now trading as Bliss & Creighton, he made and marketed chronometers and other items for navigational use. The firm became John Bliss & Son in 1855 and John Bliss & Co. in 1857. It remained in business until 1957.

Truman Hotchkiss, a sea captain from Stratford, Connecticut, designed a mechanical log in which the recording mechanism was placed on taffrail (or upper part of the stern) of the ship. After acquiring the rights to Hotchkiss’s patents of 1864 and 1867, John Bliss & Co. began advertising the "American Patent Taffrail Log." The firm also offered mechanical logs based on patents granted to John Bliss, Jr., and his brother George, as well as English instruments based on Massey’s and Walker’s patents.
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