Description

Background to George Mason & Co:

George Mason was born in 1839 in the town of Alloa in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. As early as 1853 Mason was a photographer and contributed to making stereoscopic transparencies popular in Edinburgh. In 1863 he began working in the service of Mr. John Spencer, an optician and photographic apparatus manufacturer located at 30 St Enoch Square. After about six years of working for Mr. Spencer, George Mason became a partner in the business. In the following year,1870, George Mason took over as sole proprietor of the general photographic dealing and retailing branch. He relocated the business to 39 Union Street and then to 180 – 186 Sauchieball Street, and in 1898 to 120 – 124 Buchanan Street, Glasgow where it remained. The George Mason & Co. business comprised the manufacturing of Optical, Mathematical, Chemical and Photographic Instruments, in addition to being a full stock dealer. It was once a boast of Mason & Co. that they held the largest stock of photographic goods in Britain. Mason was extremely active in the photographic community where he was on the board of the North British Dry Plate Co. and G.W. Wilson & Co. Limited. He was a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and was the Presidential chair of the Photographic Convention of the United Kingdom held in Glasgow. He was also a regular contributor of articles to periodicals, especially the British Journal. George Mason Died June 5th, 1891 at age 62. He was described to be in declining health for three years prior, generally confined to his house and showing signs of paralysis, lack of movement and vitality. After his death the company’s remaining stock was sold to Rae Bros in 1902.

This example of a late Victorian Mason instrument is in pretty good cosmetic condition for its age and presents well with lovely gleaming brass-work details, bright lacquer finishes and just the right age-appropriate patination here and there that you’d expect, with some small losses/spotting mainly to the optical tube.  It’s survived well over the last 130 years or so and the lacquered brass-work still catches the light as I hope the listing photos demonstrate. The instrument’s look and feel is of a quality not found in modern microscopes in that’s it’s fashioned from solid brass, giving it a heavy solid feel and quite an imposing presence when extended for use with coarse focus and eyepiece draw-tube both racked out.  It’s likely that even though the instrument is badged as a Mason that some components would have been supplied by other established manufacturers of the time such as Crouch and Swift and one can see elements of those firm’s design influences in parts of the instrument.  For example, the tripod certainly looks like a Swift of the same period and it was fairly common at the time for manufacturers to supply components unbranded for other manufacturers/retailers to assemble or adapt into their own-branded instruments and this example of a Mason seems to me to be exactly that.

Technical details – the construction is an anodised brass tripod foot with its design reminiscent of the Crouch and Swift styles of the period, with twin uprights supporting a pivot and an elegant elongated Lister-type upper limb.  The design of the limb is reminiscent of Watson’s Jackson model microscope from the late Victorian era and there’s a good range of coarse focus that should allow objectives of up to 3 or even 4 inches achieve focus.  Coarse focus is by rack and pinion with some smaller than normal brass thumb-wheels which have a tactile feel and work well despite their under-size.  The rack is the older-style horizontal cut, which has quite a smooth action and holds in position as it should through its working range.  With this being horizontal cut, that also supports a manufacture date around the 1880s for this instrument.  Fine focus is via a small brass thumb-wheel located on the front of the main tube, being a vernier screw acting against sprung resistance on the nose-piece only, which also works well.

In terms of its optics, this microscope is fitted with a non-graduated brass eyepiece draw-tube, which holds position on adjustment.  The instrument is supplied with a single top-hat brass eyepiece, which works well giving nice bright images and will be about 8x magnification.

It’s also got a selection of period objective lenses which are all RMS and screw directly into the brass triple turret, as under:

– 50mm – 3x magnification – Reichert in brass canister
– 1 inch – 6x magnification – Mason with brass canister
– 1/4 inch – 25x magnification – Mason
– there’s also an untested 1/12th inch Carl Zeiss objective in the case which requires oil immersion and will be 100x magnification

The magnification range available with its current set of optics is therefore is around 24x to 200x and intended for low-medium power entomology work.  I’ve tested the optics with various antique slides of insect and animal specimens and the images are perfectly acceptable when using good illumination via the illumination mirror, which being multi-adjustable is capable of giving some good options for oblique/dark-field lighting especially of insect specimens.

The instrument tilts for inclined viewing and holds in position through its working range as it should.  The circular all-brass specimen stage rotates through a full 360 degrees with just the right amount of damping, so that it holds position well on adjustment without any slippage.  There’s a top-plate that’s movable manually with x/y adjustment and this gives adequate options for specimen positioning.  There’s also a system for holding slides and a slider for holding them in place, which works quite well with a little practice.

There’s a technical sub-stage fitted at present comprising a modern condenser with iris and swing-out filter holder.  The friction-fit mount is very shallow, therefore the condenser top lens has been removed, so as just to utilise the iris and filter-carrier elements.  The condenser top lens is in the storage case.  Lighting is via a plano-concave mirror in a brass carrier and gimbal mount with a very good range of height and rotation adjustment, with period silvering to both sides showing some losses but with adequate reflectivity. 

The instrument has been very lightly lubricated with non-hardening grease, so that the controls operate smoothly.  This example displays really well having quite a presence when fully extended for use – note the draw-tube was not extended for the listing photos – with its bright lacquer finishes highlighting the lovely brass-work detailing completing the period look.  Overall, this example of a late Victorian Mason while being quite usable, should also make an imposing display piece, perhaps in a library or home office type of setting, especially when set up with an appropriate antique slide. 

There’s also the original storage case with this instrument which is in good age-appropriate condition, with lovely deep sheen to its exterior mahogany finish and just a few dull patches to the case door.  It’s fitted with internal racking, a brass carry-handle and with lock & key, which works although the door can be quite sticky to open at times.

Accessories:
– live box
– modern Abbe-type condenser

Owing to the weight and delicacy of this antique microscope and its hardwood case, it will be partially dismantled, carefully wrapped for shipping and dispatched by insured courier upon receipt of cleared funds. 

Thanks for looking.