Inventory no. 29666 - Former Display Label
English 9-FOOT REFRACTOR TELESCOPE
c.1715
Pasteboard tubes covered with vellum tooled in gold; lignum vitae lens mounts. Signed twice with letter tools around body-tube at objective end: "IOHN:MARSHALL:LVDGATE:STREET:LONDON"; undated.
The effective aperture of the objective is 7/8".
The designs of the tools used for decorating this instrument are often found on Marshall's instruments. Their style is characteristic of the period 1700-1725. The coiled snake motif has not been recorded on bookbindings, and it is likely that body-tubes for telescopes and microscopes were made by a specialist, who sold them to the optical instrument makers who added the lenses.
[Orrery Collection]
Lent by Christ Church
Other narratives:
- Refracting telescopes
- Inventory no. 29666 - Internal Exhibition Label Text 'English Telescopes'
- Former Display Label - The Orrery Collection of Scientific Instruments
- Former Display Label - The Principal Makers of Instruments in the Orrery Collection
- Orrery Collection: 1731 Inventory
- Orrery Collection in print
- Accession Record : Extract from Annual Report for 1925