A Berthoud Sea Watch, Engraved
after Ferdinand Berthoud, 18th century
No print size passed the check for this piece: at 16 x 16 in, 96 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.
See pieces like it you can buyAfter the great sea clocks came the sea watch — the marine timekeeper shrunk toward the pocket, precise enough to carry a ship's longitude in a case a captain could hold. This period engraving of a Berthoud sea watch shows the movement the way the eighteenth century preferred its triumphs: open, symmetrical, and slightly grander than life. Between Harrison's H4 and the chronometers of the next century, this is the shape the solution settled into.
- Maker
- after Ferdinand Berthoud
- Date
- 18th century
- Medium of the original
- Engraving
- Original held by
- via Wikimedia Commons
- Credit
- via Wikimedia Commons · via Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00538
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 16 x 16 in | 96 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 20 x 20 in | 77 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 30 in | 51 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 1,600 x 1,546 px, b-w
- Tone
- Darks 98, lights 254 of 255; 7.4% clipped light, 0.6% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 60.2
- Notes
- Pure white on 7% of the image, mostly the sheet itself: it prints as the paper's white
The Complication
Huygens’s pendulum, Harrison’s chronometer engravings and the astronomical tower.
All 19 pieces from The Complication
