3 1/2-inch Refracting Telescope by Edward Nairne

Description:

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
Estimate $3,000-5,000

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