Scientific Instruments

An unusual, possibly unique stereo viewer from the last decade of the 19th century attracted numerous bids at Auction Team Breker (21.8% buyer’s premium) in Cologne.

The Gunter rule was designed to help with the mathematical calculations necessary in navigation.

Sword linked to former emperor is one of the highlights at London sale held by maritime specialist

Some ‘prisoner of war’ productions are now thought to have been made by skilled craftsmen

Among the more extraordinary forms of French furniture is the ‘machine pneumatique’ – a device used in the Age of Enlightenment to demonstrate the mysterious properties of the vacuum or ‘the energy of the nothingness’.

One of the highlights of the March 22 sale at Auction Team Breker in Cologne is a pioneering mid-19th century calculating machine.

A stand-out lot of Bellmans’ (25% buyer’s premium) biannual Fine Clocks auction on December 5 was a chronometer made for the 1874 British expedition to observe the transit of Venus.

Specialist dealer evicted from arcade stays optimistic about a return – and will be at the ‘Horti’ fair

Memorabilia collected by a founding father of modern computing makes for a remarkable auction

Christie’s posted a spate of record prices at three New York sales from September 10-12 offering Paul Allen’s extraordinary collection of scientific and technological items.

This rare 1880s Jean Roullet ‘Le Berger Watteau’ shepherdess with lamb automaton starred when the second part of one of the largest doll collections on offer in recent times went under the hammer.

A collection of microscopes and other antique scientific instruments from the estate of Ohio scientist John A Davidson Jr (1939-2023) came for sale at Gray’s Auctioneers (20% buyer’s premium) on April 17.

The astrolabe was used for not only telling the time, but mapping one’s location, tracking the stars, and even as an astrological tool for decision-making.

This aristocratic survivor from the ‘brass and glass’ era of microscope making, a version of Powell & Lealand’s famous ‘No 1’ compound monocular and binocular microscope, is dated 1898.