The quintant has a polished aluminium diamond-pattern frame with aluminium and brass fittings, and a wooden handle with a brass-lined threaded hole for a second handle or a stand. The tangent screw is positioned on the back of the index arm and the clamping screw is on the front. The glasses, shades and the telescope bracket are on the back of the frame. The instrument has four grey shades and three grey horizon shades. Index-glass adjustment is made by a screw and on the horizon glass by capstan screws.

Attached to the quintant is a magnifier on a 165mm swivelling arm, pivoted at the index arm pivot point. There is also a threaded telescope bracket in two parts, fitted for correcting collimation error. It has perpendicular adjustment made by a rising-piece and a milled knob. The telescope is 184 mm in length with an inverted image and four cross wires. An extra drawtube is 76 mm long with two parallel cross wires. A second telescope is 77 mm long with an erect image. Accompanying the instrument is a sight-tube, which is 76 mm in length, a rotating shaded eyepiece with three grey shades, an adjusting pin, a magnifying glass, and a screwdriver.

The instrument has a polished aluminium limb with ab inlaid platinum scale from -5° to 205° by 10 arcminutes, measuring to 180°. The quintant has a gold vernier measuring to 10 arcseconds, with zero at the right.

The quintant is contained in a square fitted wooden box lined with green textile. There is a Kew Observatory certificate of examination in the lid, dated July 1894.