Description

Unbranded Victorian Bar-limb Stand with Novel Features – probably circa 1880s

This listing is for a nicely presented and well engineered antique bar-limb brass microscope.  It most likely dates to around the 1880s, based on it having straight-cut rack & pinion coarse focus, it’s also got non-RMS thread for the objective and is fitted with a top-hat eyepiece – all these tend to indicate its roots will be in the Victorian period.  

This late Victorian example is in decent usable original condition with heavy patination and oxidation of its brass-work, giving it a great aged look and no doubt quite a back-story if only it could speak.  In general it’s been pretty well looked after by its former custodians. It also benefits from an original composite objective, two top-hat eyepieces, a brass lever-stage with an unusual spring-loaded brass specimen retaining system along with the correct period storage case, which is also in pretty good condition.  It presents quite well, with this example having heavily patinated brass details especially its main tube, thumb-wheels and a few other details, very much in keeping with light usage and possibly historic polishing over the last 145 years or so.  

In terms of construction we have an brass Y-shaped foot with twin uprights to the pivot with tension adjustment as required and inclination available with the instrument holding position well on adjustment.  The upper of bar-limb form, with twin thumb-wheels for coarse focus with straight-cut rack, which works well with smooth action holding in position as it should in its working range.  Fine focus is not present on this instrument and is not really needed for the current low magnification set-up.  

Turning to the optics, this microscope comes fitted with a main optical tube that screws into a recess on the bar and can be removed easily for storage in the case.  There’s two top-hat eyepieces of approx 6x magnification – note one is a very tight fit into the optical tube.  There’s one composite objective with removable end-piece allowing two different magnification options of approx 6x and 10x as demonstrated in the listing photos.  Overall, the range of magnification provided ranges from about 36x to 60x and the reader should note that the objective fitment is non-RMS.

The brass stage has some novel features, viz:

– lever controlled x/y adjustment, which works quite well, if with fairly limited overall range of movement.

– a set of brass clips on a raised and sprung specimen platform and this system is excellent for retaining slides during inclined viewing. 

There’s no technical sub-stage fitted and lighting is via a plane mirror which is in reasonable condition with foxing, but reflectivity that’s perfectly usable.  The mirror is located on the limb tail-piece and has swivel and gimbal adjustment.

This is a great item for both low power desk-top use and of course display.

There is also a period-correct storage case with this example, which is also in good condition for its age with lovely exterior sheen, carry-handle, internal storage and with lock & key present although the mechanism is rather stiff and the door holds shut without being locked.

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.