Offered for sale is a fine vintage pair of made-in-Glasgow Barr & Stroud ex military model no. CF41 7 x 50 binoculars in excellent condition with original leather case.  

 

Barr & Stroud were an optical company based in Anniesland Glasgow operational from the Victorian period through to the 1980s, with the business acquired first by Pilkington, then Thales and production eventually re-located elsewhere.  The managing director of the firm from the early 1900s to around 1928 was a Mr Harold Drinkwater-Jackson, who we have a kind of personal connection with, because he built the house on the outskirts of Glasgow where we currently live.  I’ve therefore collected some Barr & Stroud instruments over the years and occasionally sell some of the items from my collection, such as this rather fine example of the Barr & Stroud CF41 military model.

 

Barr & Stroud originally manufactured military optical instruments such as rangefinders, with their product range quickly extending to include various other optical items – marine periscopes, fire control systems, telescopes and from about 1919 they also made binoculars.  The firm won contracts with the Admiralty and therefore supplied many instruments during WWII, perhaps the best known being their CF41 model of binoculars with interchangeable internal filters that were widely used by the Royal Navy and Coastal Defence forces during WWII and right up until the 1980s, so some pairs may have seen service during the Falklands conflict.

 

This CF41 example carries serial number 50354 being the most poular military model with 7x magnification and 50mm objectives and dates to 1944-5.  Barr & Stroud serial numbers are always strictly sequential, so dating is pretty certain.

 

This pair is in excellent condition and looks like it must have undergone a comprehensive professional restoration, with clear optics, smooth eyepiece focusing, working filters, collimation and just a little dust from storage.  The exterior anti-slip coating to both optical barrels looks like it’s been re-done as well at some stage because the condition is superb.  Overall, an excellent example of a military model of binoculars sporting the famous Barr & Stroud brand – likely to have originally been Navy or Coastal Defence.  It also comes with a leather neck strap.  

 

By operating the twin rotating filter controls you have a viewing choice as under:

 

– Start position – clear for viewing in normal conditions
– 1st position – yellow filter – to enhance contrast in hazy conditions
– 2nd position – neutral density filter – reduces glare in bright sunlight akin to wearing sunglasses
– 3rd position – green filter – reduces glare from water surface in very bright conditions, thereby allowing objects to be seen more easily and also used for nighttime reconnaisance in order to help preserve night-vision effectiveness

 

The different filters were used essentially to assist with naval reconnaisance in order to improve visibility in low light, hazy or bright sunlit conditions – all especially important for marine applications – and spotting things like periscopes sticking out of the water!

 

You might think that 7x magnification is a bit low for military/naval applications, but try using binoculars onboard a ship, with the ship’s motion likely to blurr the view for high magnification optics.  Therefore 7x magnification as pretty universally adopted for naval applications.  German manufacturers Leitz and Zeiss also produced marine binoculars at 7x magnifiction for Kreigsmarine and U-Boat applications.

 

Interestingly, King Charles as then Prince of Wales, when he was in the Royal Navy back in the 1970s commanding HMS Bronington, used a pair of Barr & Stroud CF41s – see image in listing photos.

 

Note 2:  currently available brand new Barr & Stroud optical instruments are nothing to do and have no connection with the original Glasgow-based British company.

 

Shipping by Royal Mail.

 

Thanks for looking.