Chest Microscope in Case with Accessories, English, c 1775-1800

The stand is fixed in the base of the mahogany green felt lined box. Two microscope pillars rise from a compass joint. One pillar is threaded to move the stage for focusing. The other pillar is marked with the positions for the objectives. At the top of the stand is an arm with a tapered socket to take the body tube, which has three double convex lenses and a dust cap. The stage has two wings, each with a pinhole, one threaded, and around the stage hole are four more pinholes, three threaded. Below the stage is a post that supports the concave mirror. Three swivelling aperture plates of blackened copper alloy are mounted on the underside of the stage. The accessories comprise six objectives, a frog plate with a silk cover, a live box, stage forceps on copper alloy pin, a stage arm, two shaped copper alloy rods, twelve ivory sliders with no specimens, a three-aperture copper alloy carrier, a live box and a pair of pincers and a copper alloy collar. The box is mahogany lined with green felt.