Description

Offered for sale is a nicely presented example of Watson’s Edinburgh Student’s Stand-H model microscope in brass – it’s a late model example and dates to 1939 based on its serial number 68345 with both case and instrument matching numbers which is always nice to see.  This is a generally good cosmetic example with very little wear and lacquered brass-work that’s retained most of its condition with just a little spotting here and there, which is pretty good considering the instrument’s age at 85 years and counting.  I hope that the listing photos do the instrument justice and showcase its excellent condition.

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 late example with the final iterations of design and development for this model.  For example it’s got the later more upright brass tripod, the stage is now integral to the limb and tailpiece, 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 and there’s now double-sided height control for the 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 and nice lacquered brass-work, 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, the instrument stands on a tripod foot with twin uprights supporting the pivot, with tension lever adjustment and Lister-limb arrangement.  The coarse focus is via rack and pinion with good smooth action that holds in position on adjustment.  Fine focus is operated via a separate brass 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 brass eyepiece draw-tube inside a brass main optical tube and there’s two vintage Watson eyepieces that with adequate illumination produce very good images:

– 6x magnification
– 10x magnification

It’s also got three period objectives and a Watson double turret which rotates freely with a nice positive feel as the objectives align to the viewing position.  The objectives are as follows:

– 2/3rds inch in brass – Watson – 10x magnification
– 1/6th inch in brass – Watson – 40x magnification
– 1/12th inch Versalic – Watson – 100x magnification and oil immersion is required
(the objectives have their correct Bakelite/brass canisters)

Overall therefore, the range of magnification available with this Watson ranges from about 60x with the lowest power lens combination, up to around 1,000x with the highest power combination.

Being a late model Edinburgh-H, the upper limb has an extended tail-piece to which are attached the stage and the sub-stage fittings.  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 brass 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 research condenser mount with centering controls comprising brass thumb-screws, which sits in a height adjustable rack and pinion mount with double-sided brass thumb-wheel to adjust the height.  There are two condenser interchangeable bodies:

– Abbe
– Dark-ground

I’ve shown one of the condensers removed from its dovetail fitting in the listing photos.  The condenser assembly also has a working iris to control lighting levels and there’s a 35mm slot above the iris intended for adding coloured, opaque of dark-field filters.  Lighting is via a plano-concave mirror on a rotation/height-adjustable brass support rod with gimbal giving good adjustability, with period silvering that’s in very good condition to both sides.

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 all moving parts such as coarse focus, fine-focus, eyepiece draw-tube, mechanical stage, condenser rack/dovetails and plano-concave mirror.  This instrument presents very well with lovely gleaming brass-work showing a few signs of tarnishing and spotting 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 instrument.  This example is essentially a very nice collectible Watson Edinburgh Stand-H model 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 age in this 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.

There’s an original Watson storage case with this example, with metal/leather carry-handle, internal lens rack, sundries container and even its original transit bolt is present, which is quite hard to find.  There’s also a working lock and key for the case.  Overall the case has quite a good exterior sheen, the correct fittings to its interior, so complements the microscope perfectly.

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, fixed to its case with the original transit bolt and dispatched by insured courier upon receipt of cleared funds.  Overseas buyers please use the eBay Global Shipping option if available for your territory, or contact seller for alternative shipping options and costs.

Thanks for looking.