Floroscope - Brass insectoscope - pocket microscope - XIXth century

€85.00

Floroscope

Botanist's microscope

Pocket microscope Late 19th - early 20th century

Description

Floroscope - Brass insectoscope - pocket microscope

These small microscopes, also known as Floroscopes or botanist's microscopes, were sold in France from the 1850s to the 1930s.

These small pocket microscopes, made of brass and glass lenses, enabled rapid observation of insects, small minerals, flowers etc. in nature.

The ingenious thing about them is that they are made up of 2 parts:

The first, for observations requiring low magnification, is a biconvex lens mounted on an openwork cylinder. The lens is placed on the object to be magnified. 

The second, for magnifications of over ten times, is the Stanhope lens. The Stanhope lens is very rudimentary, consisting of a glass cube, prism or cone with a flat surface.

The needle shown here (not original) was used to pierce the object or insect to be observed and placed under the simple lens.

Late 19th - early 20th century

Perfect for any self-respecting budding entomologist!

Height unfolded: 7cm Closed: 5cm Diameter: 2.6cm

Here's an illustration of what this floroscope looked like in a period advertisement:

(Source: The Compendium - www.lecompendium.com)

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Botany plate by Michel Etienne Descourtilz

From the Flore pittoresque et médicale des Antilles ou histoire naturelle des plantes usuelles des colonies françaises, anglaises, espagnoles et portugaises.

Published in 1827/1833

Painted engraving from the 19th century

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