Antique brass "Improved" type microscope, late 18th centry

Description

Offered for bidding is an unsigned English brass microscope of the late 18th century, mounted on a wooden base with a drawer and housed in a pyramidal wooden case. This is a fine example of the so-called "Improved" type microscope, originally designed after John Cuff’s popular microscope of the 1740s by George Adams Jr. (1750 - 1795). Adams named this model the “Adams Improved Double and Single Microscope” in his first, self-published edition of “Essays on the Microscope”. Immediately following Adams' perish, his workshop, materials, and publication rights were bought by William and Samuel Jones, altering the name of this model to the "Jones Improved Microscope". It was copied by other makers and produced between the last decades of the 18th and into the early 19th centuries by several makers, together with the "Jones Most Improved" model, which was more elaborate and expensive. But these two models became obsolete towards the 1830s when achromatic objectives for the microscope triggered entirely new designs and optical advances. The microscope shown here preserves all the properties of the original Improved microscopes. The mirror, stage, and focusing system using the rack and pinion, the optical system, are all based on a central pillar that stands on a wooden base with a drawer for the accessories. These include the series of lenses numbered from 1 to 5 depending on the magnifications, fish plate for small vertebrae, bull's eye condenser for illuminating opaque samples, live box for testing live material, and other accessories. The eyepiece tube is disassembled and stored in the storage box next to the microscope. The box has an elongated pyramidal shape, in the best tradition of 18th-century microscopes. Overall, the microscope is in good condition considering its age. Please look at the photos showing the device and its details. This is a rather rare microscope that would be a nice addition to any serious collection of historical scientific instrumentation.