The quintant has an anodized brass diamond-pattern frame with a protective bridge over the fittings and mounts. It also has a wooden handle with a brass-lined threaded hole for the second and an accompanying detached wooden handle. The tangent screw and clamping screw are positioned on the back of the index arm. The instrument has four shades, three red and one green, and three green horizon shades. Index-glass adjustment is made by a screw and on the horizon glass by a screw and a capstan screw.

Attached to the quintant is a magnifier on an 85mm swivelling arm. There is also a threaded telescope bracket with perpendicular adjustment made by a rising-piece and a milled knob. The telescope is 186 mm in length with an inverted image and four cross wires. A second telescope is 72 mm long and a third is 84 mm long, with both having an erect image. Accompanying the quintant are a sight-tube which is 89 mm in length with a red a shaded eyepiece, a rotating shaded eyepiece with a red, orange, and green shade, and an adjusting pin.

The instrument has a polished brass limb with inlaid gold scale from -2° to 165° by 20 arcminutes, measuring to 144°. The quintant has a gold vernier measuring to 20 arcseconds, with zero at the right.

The instrument is contained in a wooden keystone box, with a handwritten label for ‘B/. Barges on Thames Southampton 1909’ in the lid.