Description

HANDSOME ENGLISH MONOCULAR BY AN UNCOMMON MAKER, third quarter 18th century, signed (stamped) on the drawtube “S. Iohnson, London.” Measuring only 2-3/8″ (6 cm) long closed, this little telescope is constructed in a wonderful combination of materials typical of 18th century fashion, with wood main tube bound in red-stained ray skin, card drawtube bound in green-stained vellum with stamped decoration, dark-stained  mounts, and internal diaphragm of wood. Condition is very fine, noting some (rather attractive) wear to the stain on the edges of the mounts.

The maker would have been Samuel Johnson, apprenticed to the famous optical instrument maker James Mann in 1738, made free in the Spectacle Makers guild in 1745, and working under the wonderful trade sign of “Sir Isaac Newton & Two Pair of Golden Spectacles” (see Clifton).