ANTIQUE
TELESCOPES
for sale
(click on thumbnail for larger picture)
HAND HELD TELESCOPES
GEORGIAN (18th - 19th century)
A
long antique decagonal tapered barrel telescope
from the late 1700’s, signed on the draw tube by Watkins,
London (1747 – 1784). This
very rare single draw “transitional” telescope has a decagonal
tapered mahogany barrel, the barrel
itself is 36 inches long and tapers from about 2 inches
diameter at the objective to 1 3/4 inches diameter at the eyepiece end. Overall
the telescope is 37 ½ inches long when the eyetube is pushed fully home and
draws out to 44 inches long to focus on objects a few yards away. The 1 ½ inch
diameter objective lens looks to me to be the original achromatic doublet in a
sealed cell developed by Dollond and Watkins in the mid 18th century
and the telescope has dust slides to both the objective
and the eyepiece. The non-retained 5 lens eye tube
unscrews into sections,
for cleaning. The telescope is complete and in fine condition for a 250 year old
instrument, focuses clearly, has all original optics (as far as I can tell) and
is complete. The only damage I can find is to one of the eye tube lens retaining
rings which appears to have been caused whilst some
previous owner was trying to remove one of the lenses for cleaning. This is a
very fine example of the 18th century decagonal, transitional
telescope which gives a good depth of field and wide field of view compared with
its contemporaries. - £995
OTHERS
A
pair of Antique Brass Galilean field
glasses
or Binoculars, impressed around each eyepiece “THE
LIVERPOOL”. These type of field
glasses were made from the middle of the 1800’s until optical prism technology
overtook the simple Galilean optics in the early 20th century. These, all brass,
binoculars are in good condition with brown leather covered barrels, and sliding
ray shades. The optics are fine and free of any significant scratches, chips or
cracks and they focus smoothly giving a clear image. They measure just
under 6 inches in length with shades extended and compress down to 4 inches for
storage. The main lenses are 2 inches diameter, and
the general finish is very good for the age. A fine example of this mid 19th
century instrument.
- £35
An assortment of binoculars,
including w.w.1. military, nautical, etc
LINKS
Telescopes page last updated 13/05/2013