Description

Gilt-Stamped Japanese “Pocket” Telescope, c. 19th century, measuring 6-7/8″ (17.5 cm) long closed, with its brass dust caps. The main tube is bound in red leather, gilt stamped, and the telescope opens to 16″ (41 cm) on its two intensely-patterned black and lightly gilt-stamped drawtubes. The latter are tapered for a very snug stable fit when drawn open, and are removable only by removing the objective and withdrawing them through that opening. The eye surround is turned horn, the singlet objective surround brass, stopped down to a miniscule 6mm for acuity. Condition is very fine noting tiny losses to the binding. We have had larger Japanese telescopes, one bound in fully patterned leather (Tesseract Catalogue 102 Item 6), the other lacquered and patterned (98/1), but this is the first truly “pocket” form we have seen.