$2,468
3 1/2-inch Refracting Telescope by Edward Nairne, signed don the back plate E. Nairne, London , with 43-inch tapering mahogany tube, 12 1/2-inch lg. brass star finder, eyepiece in two sections, radial focusing, equatorial mount with ivory-handled slow motion controls, and tripod mount. Note: Edward Nairne is listed at addresses in London from 1752 - 1796. He was a partner of Thomas Blunt. In the Collection of Historical and Scientific Instruments at Harvard University is a nearly identical, although incomplete example of a Nairne telescope, which was secured by Benjamin Franklin for Harvard College before 1770. See David Wheatland, The Apparatus of Science at Harvard 1765-1800 , pp. 22-23. See color plate P. X
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2006-07-29
