A long 4 draw telescope by Joshua Ronchetti of Manchester
Stock Number: 153
£150
A 41 inch long 4-draw telescope in brass, labelled Ronchetti, Manchester, still working perfectly.
Dimensions
41 inches long, 52mm diameter
Circa
1840
Country of manufacture
UK and Ireland
Description
This very long telescope has four brass draws, and a main copper barrel 52mm diameter. The barrel was obviously once covered in leather, which is missing. The lenses are all in excellent condition, giving a very high magnification: the telescope can be hand-held despite its length. All the draws run smoothly: the first draw is engraved “J.Ronchetti Manchester”.
Joshua Ronchetti was working from 1817 to 1841 in addresses including Balloon st, Market Street, St Ann’s Place/Passage, Cateaton St and Greengate. By the size, the scope probably dates from the 1840s.
Ask the Dealer
Dealer information
Telescope Collector
I first started using a telescope in the 60s, to identify aeroplanes arriving at Yeadon airport, in Yorkshire. Then I started to collect and restore vintage brass scopes in the 1990s. The collection boomed later, in the early days of the internet, rising to around 300 in number. Since then I have made a lot of friends via the internet, advising them on how to identify, date or repair their scopes. At the age of 74 I need to disperse these wonderful bits of engineering history, because they still work today as well as they did 200+ years ago! That is the fascination....Some of my collection have already been sold to collectors spread around, in the UK, USA, Ireland, Israel, France and Germany. Several have been returned to the UK descendants of the people who made them, or relatives of their previous owners, because they found the stories on my website. Now the collection needs to be dispersed more systematically. If you are looking for a specific telescope, just ask, maybe I have one! If you want better pictures of the telescopes shown here, these can be emailed. Nick Denbow, based in Alresford, Hampshire: contact via email on [email protected]
