Scientific Instruments
Items relating to scientific history are a popular collecting area in which number of specialist dealers and auctioneers operate. The field overlaps into sectors such as antique tools, technology, medicine and maritime history.
Objects in this area that regularly appear on the market include microscopes, telescopes, optical devices, globes, sundials and astrolabes as well as dental, drawing and navigational instruments.
Homemade receiver ‘picked up news of the Titanic disaster’
10 July 2023Interest in wireless telegraphy, that was piqued when Guglielmo Marconi successfully sent a message from Poldhu, Cornwall to St John’s, Newfoundland in 1910, prompted many amateurs to build and develop their own sets based on the ‘Coherer’ principle for sending and receiving Morse code.
Butterflies create a bit of a flutter in the saleroom
10 July 2023The 40 trays of British butterflies in this handsome mahogany four-section cabinet by JJ Hill & Son of London were collected by Geoffrey Alfred Cole.
One-off pocket barometer altimeter was used for mining
10 July 2023This brass cased mining aneroid pocket barometer altimeter, c.1885, was almost certainly a one-off order or commission.
Astronomical clock ticks tech boxes as innovative timekeeper offered at Drouot
12 June 2023De Baecque & Associés will be selling this monumental astronomical clock standing 9ft 11in (3m) high on June 30.
‘Earliest standard measure’ is the weigh to go
22 May 2023The Oak Interior sale at Bishop & Miller in Stowmarket on June 1-2 includes this ‘important and exceptional’ Edward IV bronze measure.
Bid for the feeling of Bliss at auction
15 May 2023Converse Auctions in Pennsylvania will be offering the clock collection of Willis R Michael (1894-1969) in its online auction on May 19.
US design formed latest type of telegraph tech
01 May 2023This rare US patent model, offered for sale by German ‘technical antiques’ specialist Auction Team Breker (21.8% buyer’s premium), aimed to change the way messages were passed via the telegraph in the mid 19th century.
The web shop window: an early 20th century desk fan
13 March 2023Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.
Civil engineer’s career took him from Grimsby to Brazil
20 February 2023A substantial Victorian monocular microscope auctioned by Flints (25% buyer’s premium) dated 1858 and 1863 on the objectives was not only a good bit of kit with lots of accessories included but came signed with the owner’s name in several places.
Navigate a route, north and south
20 February 2023Jason Clarke Antiques has for sale at £8500 this unusually large 9in diameter, c.1770, universal equinoctial ring dial by Dollond of London
Optical expertise all round
20 February 2023The famous firm of Negretti & Zambra was formed in London in 1850 by the Italian-born Henry Negretti and Joseph Warren Zambra
Edison Electric Pen turned out to be good for tattooing, not so for copying
20 February 2023Thomas Edison’s electric pen might not have flourished as planned for the purpose of duplicating documents but if you have a tattoo you can be thankful.
A world coming into focus thanks to Negretti & Zambra
20 February 2023Early stereoscopic images featured in the collection of a dealer curious about how technology transformed life in Victorian times
Quadrant provided early help if all at sea
20 February 2023The Winter Maritime Sale at Eldreds on February 28-March 1 includes an 18th century Islamic brass quadrant made in the Maghreb region of north-west Africa.
Prize winning horizontal steam engine shows ‘exceptional engineering’
20 February 2023Steam engine made in France and later installed in Sussex museum graced same exhibition as the Eiffel Tower
When Short Brothers started to hit the heights
20 February 2023This instrument dates from the founding days of one of the world’s most significant aerospace manufacturers: Short Brothers
Gems from a golden age of French automata
20 February 2023The Paris firm of Roullet & Decamps was famous for automata, walking and moving dolls and toys.
Weather forecast all in one
20 February 2023Dreweatts in Newbury has for sale this fine Victorian ‘weather station’ with a full provenance and a portrait of its former owner.
Telescope on offer from renowned German maker
20 February 2023Georg Merz and Joseph Mahler took over the Utzschneider & Fraunhofer company in 1839.
Dhunjeebhoy Rustomjee made his name in shipping
20 February 2023The slide rule shown here belonged to Dhunjeebhoy Rustomjee, who came from a fine line of Indian master ship builders in ancestry.
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