The sextant has a polished brass diamond-pattern frame with a protective frame over the fittings and mounts, and a wooden handle. The tangent screw and clamping screw are positioned on the back of the index arm. The sextant has four shades, three red, and one green, and three horizon shades, two red and one green. Index-glass adjustment is made by a screw and on the horizon glass by a clamp screw and a capstan screw.

Attached to the sextant is a magnifier travelling on a worm screw with a defect milled knob. There is also a threaded telescope bracket in two parts, fitted for correcting collimation error. It has perpendicular adjustment by a rising-piece and a milled knob. The telescope is 119 mm in length with an inverted image. An extra drawtube for the telescope measures 68 mm, with an inverted image and four cross wires. A second extra drawtube is 64 mm with an erect image and a rotating variable shaded eyepiece with of four shades, one clear and three red. This drawtube is probably not original to this instrument. There is also a sight-tube which is 88 mm in length and has an adjusting pin.

The sextant is contained in a shaped fitted wooden box, containing a trade label in the lid for J.W. Norie and Co, Leadenhall Street, London (1812-39) and illegible pencil notes dated June 1835.

The instrument has a polished brass limb with inlaid silver scale from -2° to 135° by 15 arcminutes, measuring to 121°. The sextant has a silver vernier measuring to 20 arcseconds, with zero at the right.