Telescope

Add to album

This refracting telescope was made in England around 1720. It is unsigned.

The five-draw telescope is covered with vellum and has a wooden eyepiece. The exterior has been dyed in parts green and red, and stamped with book-binding tools and filled with gold leaf.

In 1966, a study of the motifs on 70 English instruments showed that the same book-binding tools were used to decorate instruments signed by different makers. However, the motifs fell into three stylistic - and therefore possibly dating - groups.

Record details

To search on related items, click any underlined text below.

• Online ID: 000-100-102-736-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  T.1976.93
• Date: Around 1720
  c. 1720
  
• Material: Vellum
  
• Dimensions:
• What:
• Subject: 3. ASTRONOMY, Refracting telescopes (Departmental Classification)
  22. PHYSICS, Light (Departmental Classification)
  
• Who:
• Where: ENGLAND
  
• Event:
• Description: Five-draw vellum-covered telescope, unsigned, England, c. 1720
  
• References:
  • Turner, G. L'E., 'Decorative Tooling on 17th and 18th Century Microscopes and Telescopes' in Physis: Revista internazionale di storis della scienza 8 (1966), pp 99-128; republished in Essays on the History of the Microscope. Oxford: 1980, pp 79-108 
• Translations:
• Related Records: