Antique Telescope

The antique telescope was purchased in large quantities by sailors , the military and astronomers. However due to the fragile glass optics and brass tubes that were easy to dent, not a lot of these telescopes are to be found today.

Most often these telescopes were used by mariners and had complicated optics to show the image right side up unlike the scopes used for astronomy which have an inverted image. The hand held telescope, also called a spyglass was focused by moving the tubes back and forth to get a clear image. A telescope with 3 or 4 sections was much more compact and easy to store, but a little delicate . For durability the sailors chose the two section spyglass known as a single draw. Most ofen made from brass with a leather or wood covering the antique telescope can also be found made from silver plate or nickel silver. A solid wood barrel with brass tube would be a rare find and indicates a very early model.

During the 1800's makers included their name on the telescopes in a quite elaborate script. This was changed to a simple block print in the 1900's , just something to watch for when looking for an antique telescope.

What to Look For in an Antique Telescope
One of the more common names on antique telescopes is the Dollond of London because of the high quality of these scopes many of them can still be found today along with the Bardou, Paris another quality maker of fine scopes. America was also represented in the field of high quality telescopes by Alvan Clark and Sons from the 1850's through the 1920's.

The spyglass was used under sometimes severe weather conditions and dirty field conditions, after all it was a tool to be used, but also a delicate insrument and subject to damage. Most common damage would be scratched or broken optics which can not be repaired. Dents to the tubes can posssibly be repaired with a little work. Depending on your needs, just how good of shape the telescope needs to be in is up to you. Sometimes if the item is just for a nautical decoration, the condition is not so critical.

Search for Antique Telescope
The search for the antique telescope as with any collectible to me is a large portion of the fun in collecting. I can spend hours in a small antique store and talking to knowledgable collectors or browsing the internet museums in my hunt for information on nautical collectibles. In todays world the internet is the greatest way to locate your collectibles and information on collecting. The amount of quality info and shopping services is still quite amazing to me as I am somewhat new to the world of computers, but I found the internet to be a wonderful resource in my endless search for collectibles

Dolland of London was a maker of premium telescopes along with Bardou of Paris.