Instrument maker Edward Nairne was apprenticed to Matthew Loft of the Spectacle Makers' Company in 1741, free in 1748, and rose to become Master of the company. His shop was "at the Golden Spectacles, Reflecting Telescopes and Hadley's Quadrant, in Cornhill, opposite the Royal Exchange." He advertized as Nairne and Blunt, in a partnership with a former apprentice, after 1774.