Sold as novelty items in the 19th century, these little French microscopes were advertised as “students’ microscopes for mineralogy, botany, and insectology”.
The body tube is 2” in length and slightly less that an inch in diameter. It is marked, “Made in France”, on the eyepiece. A long hat-pin needle was used for skewering specimens and placing them inside the instrument.
One lens is a high magnification Stanhope type, the other a simple magnifier. The instrument is finished in lacquered brass. The microscope is typical of the many instruments that were made, primarily in France, during the microscope “craze” of the 19th century. They filled a need of the general public to discover the new world of the microscopic.
Museum, Telescopes & Binoculars
