Dated 1891 Collapsible Pocket Spyglass - Rare Design

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This is a very rare design and dated collapsible pocket spyglass. Marked 1891 and King Optical Co. on both sides. A small lever at the side is twisted to rotate the forward lens to a vertical position. The rotation opens the clamshell style covers to reveal the lense. Turning of a thumbscrew moves the eye lense in and out for focusing. To close, the lever is rotated to return the forward lense to its horizontal position and the metal clamshell style covers are pressed shut. Designed to be carried in the pocket and measures only 4 1/8 inches long. All brass or bronze construction. Glass lenses. Near mint condition. The first telescopes may have been Assyrian crystal lenses, but the Visby lenses tentatively suggest that the technology was known to the Arabs and Persians. Leonard Digges is sometimes credited with the invention in England in the 1570s, but usually credit for assembling the first telescope is given to an unknown Dutch spectacle maker in about 1608. Some name that person as Hans Lippershey (c. 1570 - c. 1619), but Jacob Metius and Zacharias Jansen also claimed to have invented a telescope during the same period. Even if Lippershey did not make the first one, he publicized it. Galileo Galilei made his own telescope in 1609, calling it at first a "perspicillum," and then using the terms "telescopium" in Latin and "telescopio" in Italian (from which the English word derives). Galileo is generally credited with being the first to use a telescope for astronomical purposes. Galileo's telescope consisted of a convex object lens and a concave eye lens, which is universally called a Galilean telescope (used as a viewfinder in many simple cameras). Later, Johannes Kepler described the optics of lenses (see his books Astronomiae Pars Optica and Dioptrice), including a new kind of astronomical telescope with two convex lenses (a principle often called the Kepler telescope). Optical interferometer arrays and arrays of radio telescopes were developed much more recently. AUTHENTICITY: I will do my best to describe the item or items in my auctions accurately. I hold several college degrees in the related fields of engineering, history, and materials science which help a great deal to separate the authentic items from the fakes. Several public and private museums routinely rely on my expertise to identify, verify, and authenticate relics and dug items. I enjoy spending most of my time in the field. I practice professional archeology (also spelled - archaeology - with both being correct according to American Heritage) and have conducted many digs. Admittedly, I am sometimes wrong. Please feel to ask me and others about my items before you bid. With enough practice, fairly accurate item authentication becomes a sixth sense. Beware of sellers that only sell and don't ever buy for their own personal collections. Beware of experts that don't sell or buy items at all or don't have personal collections. Letters of authentication are worth nothing and are easily printed by anyone. I have acquired some pristine artifacts from Ebay along with a few fakes. I have also acquired many nice Civil War items directly from the diggers and other collectors. Learn from experience. Most importantly, glass cases in showrooms don't make relics authentic but they do make better displays than shoeboxes. Don't pay too high prices but seek out antique sources. GENERAL INFO: No reserve as usual. The best antique dealers don't use reserves. Reserves are mostly a greed thing no matter what sellers tell you about protecting their initial investment. Several sellers that I have received emails from will never understand that the open market determines price not their "showroom" case prices. I guess they never had Economics 101. This is a hobby and I do it for the hunt and history, not the money. I search the East Coast from Maine to Florida for items and enjoy parting with some as well as placing others in my collection. Bidders and buyers, please feel free to ask questions. I'm not the greatest at checking regular emails so I recommend that... read more

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