Telescope

Description

Five draw vellum-covered refracting telescope, unsigned, English, c. 1720

Museum reference

T.1976.93

Collection

History of Science

Object name

Telescope

Production information

England, Northern Europe

Date

c. 1720

Materials

Cardboard, Vellum, Wood

Physical description

Card; vellum-covered; turned wooden eyepiece and objective end; exterior dyed in parts green and red, stamped with bookbinding tools, and filled with gold leaf

Exhibitions

• Earth in Space (29 Jul 2011)
  National Museum of Scotland

References

Turner, G. L'E., 'Decorative Tooling on 17th and 18th Century Microscopes and Telescopes' in Physis: Revista internazionale di storia della scienza 8 (1966), pp 99-128; republished in Essays on the History of the Microscope, Oxford, 1980, pp 79-108

On display

national museum of scotland »
level 1 »
natural world, earth in space »
space (early telescopes)