Compound Microscope, Accessories and Case, English, c. 1750

This Culpeper-type compound microscope stands on a box base with a concave mirror mounted at its centre. Three scrolled copper alloy legs support the stage which has a pinhole, a keyhole slot, a sunken centre and a circular spring stage. The body tube is pasteboard covered in red ray-skin. A pasteboard draw tube covered in green vellum with marks for the focusing positions pushes into the body. A lignum vitae collar at the top on the tube holds a field lens and the fitting for the eye lens, screws onto it. A blackened eyecup fits onto the top of the draw tube and the copper alloy nose with an external thread for objectives screws into the lower end. The following accessories are stored in the drawer in the base of the microscope; four objectives, an ivory talc box holding mica disks, stage forceps, fishplate, a glass disk in a copper alloy setting, a lignum vitae live box, two glass lenses, three copper alloy rings, and a coiled copper alloy wire. The mahogany pyramid case has a handwritten paper label.