Microscope (1 of 2)

This portable brass microscope (pictured here in its fitted case) was made around 1845. It is signed by Powell and Lealand of London, a firm considered to be among the three pre-eminent mid-Victorian London microscope makers. It became known as their 'No. 4' stand.

The achromatic compound microscope has one eyepiece. It has a short, non-standard body tube, and and the form of address gives neither street nor date - both features of Powell & Lealand instruments made before 1847. Despite its small dimensions, it has both a mechanical stage and a long-lever fine-focus.

Powell & Lealand's 'bar-limb' microscope, of which this is an example, was first described in 1843, but the portable version was not described by contemporaries until 1848; yet this example appears to be somewhat earlier. Portable instruments were always popular with amateur microscopists, as they were less cumbersome than full-sized instruments and their accessories when travelling.

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