The sextant has an anodized brass curve-bar pattern frame, with 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 capstan screws.

Attached to the sextant is a magnifier on an 83mm swivelling arm. 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 73 mm in length with an erect image. A second telescope is 142 mm with an inverted image and four cross wires. The sight-tube is 68 mm in length and has a red shaded eyepiece. A magnifying glass and adjusting pin are missing.

The sextant is contained in a square fitted wooden box with a leather strap lined with textile. The brass plate on the lid is marked ‘Lord Charles Beresford H.M.S. Condor’. The box contains a trade label for George Lee and Son, Portsea (about 1847).

The instrument has a polished brass limb with an inlaid silver scale from -5° to 155° by 10 arcminutes, measuring to 137°. The sextant has a silver vernier measuring to 1 arcminute, with zero at the right.

Captain (later Admiral) Lord Charles Beresford (1846-1919), the original owner, was commander of HMS ‘Condor’ in the battle of Alexandria, in 1882. In 1913 Beresford presented it to Eric Ebbage, the donor, then a Sea Scout in the Second Kingston-on-Thames Troupe, as an award for the best ship model at a Birmingham exhibition.