The provenance of the ashtrays shown here is attributed to the Elgar family (Tennants, 2016). It was published alongside the 1906 edition of Dr. Lancaster’s book, Half-hours with the Microscope (Lancaster, 1863), one of the popular textbooks for Victorian dilettante microscopists. Elgar, in his later years, can serve as a type model for such an amateur. After moving to Hampstead in 1912, he developed a keen interest in microscopy and was fascinated by all things microscopic, including diatoms and
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