The reflecting circle consists of a circular brown and yellow-lacquered brass frame, with a wooden handle. The double-ended tangent screw, working against a spring loaded stop which is damaged and incomplete, and the clamping screw, which is missing, are on the back of the index arm. The instrument has no shades. Index-glass adjustment is made by four screws and the horizon prism is non-adjustable.

Attached to the circle is a magnifier, with its lenses missing, on a 110mm swivelling arm from the index glass mount, and serving both verniers. There is also a threaded telescope bracket in two parts, fitted for correcting collimation error by capstan screws. It has perpendicular adjustment made by a rising-piece and a milled knob. The telescopes and some unidentified parts are missing. Accompanying the instrument are two shaded eyepieces in red and green. One of the feet of the frame is missing.

The instrument has a brass limb with an inlaid silver scale from 0° to 180° by 10 arcminutes, in four quadrants. The reflecting circle has two silver verniers measuring to 20 arcseconds, with the zeros at the right.

The reflecting circle is contained in a square fitted wooden box partly lined with green textile. In the lid is a piece of paper with the handwritten note ‘Spiegelkreis No 53’, followed by an instruction signed by the maker on how to store the instrument in the box. A plate is missing from the top of the lid.

This instrument is similar in design to the reflecting circles by Pistor and Martins.