Description

Offered for sale is a nicely presented and well engineered antique compact desk-top microscope that’s packed with features.  It’s unbranded but must be by a good maker in view of the build quality and attention to detail and my research indicates that it likely dates to around 1900 and was made in France. There’s no maker’s mark on the instrument as far as I can see, not even a casting mark on the underside of the foot.  It was quite common during the mid to late 19th and early 20th centuries for some manufacturers to produce unbranded examples which they then sold in bulk to retailers.  Sometime retailers affixed their own details to the instruments, sometimes they were just sold unbranded.  The practice of one manufacturer producing bulk unbranded items which are then sold by another usually a retailer still exists, often termed white labelling these days. There’s a photo of this model from a French catalogue dating to 1900 in the listing photo stream.

This late Victorian example of a desk-top stand is in good original condition and has obviously been well looked after by its former custodians. It also benefits from clean objective and eyepiece, a stage with original brass specimen retaining clips and the correct period storage case, which is also in pretty good condition.  It presents really well with this example having black-painted and lacquered brass details which are just showing some signs of age-related tarnishing with a bit of lacquer loss here and there, very much in keeping with light usage over the last 126 years or so.  This compact desk-top microscope is built with quality materials, with solid construction and no doubt skilled workmanship with most components probably hand-finished.  This is a sturdy quality period microscope in good original condition, fully working, with few signs of wear and bags of character and period charm.  It’s got a great look and patina and is a fantastic example of a compact brass instrument from the end of the Victorian era.

In terms of construction we have a heavy black-painted iron U-shaped foot, with twin uprights to the pivot with tension adjustment as required.  The upper limb is a Continental pillar-style in lacquered brass.  The instrument’s main coarse focus is by straight-cut recessed rack & pinion which works well with smooth action, holding in position as it should in its working range.  Fine focus is operated via a brass thumb-wheel atop the continental pillar which also has a smooth operation.  Turning to the optics, this compact microscope comes fitted with a quality vintage eyepiece that with good illumination produce excellent images:

– approx 6x magnification 

There’s one vintage objectives which is unmarked but must be about the equivalent of 1 inch focal length, giving approx 6x magnification and 36x overall, so suited to entomolgy/botany applications .  Note: the objective is non-RMS in terms of thread diameter.

There’s also a magnification lens fitted to the main tube which is useful for viewing specimens on the stage and it could also be used as a bull’s-eye condenser for incident illumination, with suitable samples – a nice accessory to have.

The square brass stage has original brass specimen clips and this system is excellent for retaining slides during inclined viewing. 

Turning to the sub-stage, there’s an adjustable iris for controlling lighting.  For lighting there is a single-sided concave mirror on a brass swinging arm giving lateral adjustment plus gimbal.  The mirror silvering is in very good condition.

This is a great example of classic compact stand that’s in great original condition with decent optics and it’s essentially very much in collectable condition, displaying well for a compact instrument – small but very well put together.  Great item for both desk-top use and display.

Accessories:

– live box

There is a period storage case with this example, which is also in good condition for its age with exterior sheen and there’s a couple of cupboard latches fitted to keep the lid secure.

Owing to the weight and delicacy of the microscope, it will be partially dismantled, well wrapped for shipping and dispatched by insured courier upon receipt of cleared funds.  

Thanks for looking.