Description

For Sale:

This listing is for a very nicely presented example of Watson’s Edinburgh Student’s Stand-H model microscope in what looks like nickel/silver or chromium-plated finish, along with brass and black lacquered details – this combination would have been a special factory order.  It’s a mid production cycle model example and dates to 1921 based on its serial number 25850 and it’s been a display example for some time, shown inside a glass dome which explains its exemplary condition.  This is a generally very good to excellent cosmetic example with very little wear and lacquered black finish that’s retained most of its condition, which is pretty good considering the instrument’s age at over 100 years and counting.  I hope that the listing photos do the instrument justice and showcase its excellent condition and being a white metal example it’s only the second or third such Edinburgh-H that I’ve known with this distinguishing feature, making it super-rare and a definite must-have for a Watson collector.

The Edinburgh pattern model of microscope was produced by Watson between 1887 and around 1945; its long production run giving us a firm clue regarding just how good this model of microscope was in its heyday and over that long production cycle Watson regularly updated and improved the model, so what you see here is a mid-period example with the various baked-in iterations of design and development for this model.  For example it’s got the later more upright brass tripod, the rotating plate to the top of the stage has been dropped as has the useful feature of the mirror on a swinging support arm in favour of a more substantially constructed sub-stage.  The Edinburgh stand was originally developed by Watson in collaboration with a professor and lecturer in bacteriology at the University of Edinburgh, hence the Edinburgh designation. With its signature rear cross-member giving that classic “H” look the Edinburgh H is a fine example of British optical engineering with a design and style essentially dating back to the Victorian era. 

Turning to the technical details of construction, the instrument stands on a brass tripod foot with bun feet and twin uprights supporting the pivot and Lister-limb arrangement.  On this 1921 model the stage is bolted to a mounting assembly, which in turn is bolted to the underside of the upper limb, along with a mount for sub-stage accessories, giving quite a substantial stable platform, although Watson didn’t use this type of construction for very long in the Edinburgh production cycle.  

Coarse focus is via rack and pinion with good smooth action that holds in position on adjustment.  Fine focus is operated via a separate graduated thumb-wheel located at the rear of the upper limb which operates an internal lever system acting against sprung resistance.  The focusing technique being to achieve near focus with the coarse thumb-wheels, then fine-tune with the single rear thumb-wheel, which only has a fairly small range of movement via its vernier screw mechanism.

With the optics, this Watson microscope comes fitted with a period graduated chromed eyepiece draw-tube inside a black painted brass main optical tube and there’s a vintage Watson eyepiece that with adequate illumination produces very good images:

– 10x magnification No. 4

It’s also got four period objectives by mainly Watson (later examples) along with a Watson quadruple turret, which rotates with a nice positive feel as the objectives align to the viewing position.  The objectives are as follows:

– 50mm button objective by R & J Beck – 3x magnification – high working distance
– 16mm Para – Watson – 10x magnification
– 4mm Para – Watson – 40x magnification
– 2mm Para – Watson – 100x magnification – oil immersion required

Overall therefore, the range of magnification available with this Watson ranges from 30x with the lowest power lens combination, up to around 1,000x with the highest power combination and use of oil immersion techniques.

The fully mechanical stage is an original Watson design in brass with twin thumb-wheel adjusters on the right hand side of the stage that have just the right feel and give excellent x/y sample movement.  It’s fitted with its original specimen clips for holding slides steady during inclined viewing and when the axes are being moved around.  The freely running x/y controls also offering fine control of specimen positioning, which is a real advantage for higher magnification work.  The y-axis also holds position on inclination.

Turning to the sub-stage, we have a Watson Abbe-type condenser mount with centering controls comprising twin thumb-screws, which sits in a height adjustable rack and pinion mount with single-sided over-size thumb-wheel to adjust the height. The condenser assembly also has a working iris to control lighting levels and there’s a 35mm swing-out filter holder for adding coloured, opaque or dark-field filters.  Lighting is via a single-sided plano mirror on a rotation/height-adjustable brass support rod with gimbal, giving good adjustability and period silvering that’s in reasonably good condition to both sides.  Interestingly, the reverse side of the mirror carrier when polished can also be used for sample illumination.

The instrument’s controls and friction surfaces have been very lightly lubricated and operate smoothly with a nice feel and there’s very little in the way of age-related signs of wear to any moving parts.  This instrument presents very well with lovely gleaming white metal bright-work showing a few minor signs of tarnishing here and there, in keeping with its age.  This indicates to me that the instrument has obviously been very well looked after throughout its life and it’s in excellent shape for an inter-war example.  This is essentially a very nice collectible Watson Edinburgh Stand-H with the very rare silvered finish to its bright-work in the right condition for a collector or connoisseur – it’ll make a great usable and display item and is offered at an attractive price point for an antique Edinburgh-H model of this type, age and condition.  It also presents really well while being used as a desk-top instrument and will also display rather nicely in a library or home office setting, especially when set up with an antique slide. There’s no storage case with this example at the present time. 

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