Description

SOLD – A large 3 inch refracting library telescope, signed on the back collar, ‘Gilbert & Co, London’, circa 1810. The telescope barrel length is 44 inches ( 112 cm ) and the draw tube is an additional 12.5″ ( 32 cm ) in length. The case holds an additional high power draw tube ( 37.5 cm length ), two sun filters ( one for each draw tube ) and a selection of variable powered internal lenses.

The telescope is equipped with and adjustable steady bar, a slow motion mahogany horizontal adjusting rod and a quick release mechanism to the base of the column.

No damage to the optics …… the views are superb!

The Gilbert family of London based scientific instrument makers ran through four generations from John Gilbert ( apprenticeship completed 1717 ). 

William Gilbert continued the business after John Gilbert II and his elder son John died within months of each other in 1791. In the early 1790s he was in partnership James Gilkerson at Tower Hill, having earlier joined Henry Gregory and Gabriel Wright at Leadenhall Street.  At Leadenhall Street, William Gilbert continued in partnership with Gabriel Wright until about 1806; they had been joined in the last half of the 1790s by one of Wright’s former apprentices, Benjamin Hooke. From 1806, with his sons William Dormer, apprenticed 1795, free 1802, and Thomas, apprenticed 1801, free 1809, the business traded as William Gilbert & Sons. Some London directories referred to them as ‘Gilbert & Co.’

Contained in a large mahogany case.

The telescope comes with a letter from the last previous family member to inherit the telescope:

‘To whom it may concern. I inherited this brass telescope from my Grandfather, the late Sir George Warner, who dies in 1978. The accompanying piece of paper which I found in the telescope case sets out its provenance. It reads as follows:

“George’s Telescope. From his grandmother S. Marriott Carson, which belonged to her father, Benjamin Marriott Perkins”.

S. Marriott Carson was born in 1821. Mrs Sarah Marriott Carson appears on the 1861 census, living at Spinfield, Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire. She was 38 at the time of the census. She gave “Castle Perkins, Jamaica”, as her place of birth.