A fine late 18th-Century English lacquered-brass 2½ inch table telescope Ramsden, London
A fine late 18th-Century English lacquered-brass 2½ inch table telescope Ramsden, London
A fine late 18th-Century English lacquered-brass 2½ inch table telescope Ramsden, London
  • Load image into Gallery viewer, A fine late 18th-Century English lacquered-brass 2½ inch table telescope Ramsden, London
  • Load image into Gallery viewer, A fine late 18th-Century English lacquered-brass 2½ inch table telescope Ramsden, London
  • Load image into Gallery viewer, A fine late 18th-Century English lacquered-brass 2½ inch table telescope Ramsden, London

A fine late 18th-Century English lacquered-brass 2½ inch table telescope Ramsden, London

$3,200.00
$3,200.00
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A fine late 18th-Century English lacquered-brass 2½ inch table telescope
Ramsden, London
signed on the 25½ inch long body-tube J Ramsden London, with dust-cap and rack and pinion eyepiece extension tube focusing, raised via a compass joint and brass column with telescopic stabilising rod with ivory key for rack and pinion adjustment to a folding tripod base with inswept legs, in fitted mahogany carrying case with accessories.

Jesse Ramsden (1731-1800) worked for many of the leading 18th century London instrument makers and is famous for inventing the scale dividing engine. He was one of the most important makers of his generation.

The original mahogany box with printed oval label "William Harris / Mathematical, Optical & Philosophical / INSTRUMENT MAKER / No. 47 High Holborn / nearly opposite Chancery Lane / London",

The company business card advertised that they were Manufacturers of Optical, Mathematical and Philosophical instruments “by His Majesty’s Royal Letters Patent”.

Literature: See Gloria Clifton, Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851, NMM 1995, pp. 125-6, where this maker is recorded at this address in 1805 and at 50 High Holborn by 1815.