Scientific Instruments
Items relating to scientific history are a popular collecting area in which number of specialist dealers and auctioneers operate. The field overlaps into sectors such as antique tools, technology, medicine and maritime history.
Objects in this area that regularly appear on the market include microscopes, telescopes, optical devices, globes, sundials and astrolabes as well as dental, drawing and navigational instruments.

Dealer Hawkins to sell townhouses tempters
02 January 2023Antiques dealer and taxidermy specialist Emma Hawkins is selling a collection from her townhouses in Edinburgh and London at Sotheby’s this month.

Guilmet’s torpedo clock boat shoots away at auction
07 November 2022André Romain Guilmet’s industrial themed clocks, the epitome of Victorian ‘progress’, are an ever-popular series.

Focus on microscope taken on Captain Cook’s first Voyage of Discovery
24 October 2022A microscope used by Joseph Banks (1743-1820) on Captain Cook’s first Voyage of Discovery (1768-71) is going under the hammer estimated at £30,000-50,000 on November 1.

Pick of the week: Wheel time measured by real time machine
06 June 2022By 1920, as a new era of aero-engined racing cars threatened to break the 100mph barrier, the emerging sport of motor racing required better and more precise time-keeping.

Retro fair makes call on name change
25 April 2022The National Vintage Communications Fair has rebranded itself and is now called RetroTechUK.

Cataloguing the best in London and beyond
21 March 2022A round-up of current catalogues from folk-art at the rescheduled Winter Show to the Mellor-Cobham collection of English porcelain at Albert Amor

French inventor Colmar's Arithmomètre sells in German saleroom
14 March 2022Although the French inventor Charles-Xavier Thomas de Colmar introduced the first model of his calculating machine Arithmomètre in 1820, he waited some 30 years before he started producing them in series.

Dealers continue appliance of science despite fair demise
14 February 2022The Antique Scientific Instruments Fair ran for 30-plus years but sadly is no more, with its last outing taking place under the banner of the Scientific Instrument Society held as part of the Antique Arms Fair in London in September 2019.

Stereoscopy book by historian and rock star praises King’s College London professor
20 November 2021The launch of Queen’s guitarist Brian May and historian Denis Pellerin’s new book ‘Stereoscopy: The Dawn of 3-D’ was held at King’s College London to honour a past-professor at the university.

Fossils fuel interest in 19th century microscope slides
01 November 2021A group of early 19th century microscope slides mounted with specimens of fossilised wood sold for £11,500 (estimate £1000-1500) to a Canadian private collector at Special Auction Services (25% buyer’s premium) in Newbury.

Elephant in the room: an exceptional clock
18 October 2021A rare 17th century elephant automaton clock was the star of the Christie’s New York Exceptional sale when it sold at $2.15m (£1.58m) to a private buyer.

Navy commander Peter Scott became renowned birdwatcher
22 March 2021If you are a birdwatcher, you need a good pair of binoculars.

Quality is instrumental to value when it comes to science equipment
01 February 2021Theodolite and telescope made to high standards measure up in two salerooms

Superb British Smith & Beck microscope bought by US collector for £38,000 in Berkshire auction
21 December 2020Surviving records for the London instrument maker Smith & Beck state this superb microscope from the brass and glass era was purchased on September 2, 1853, by Francis Herbert Wenham (1824-1908) – the British engineer who became a key figure in the improvement of the microscope.

Pick of the week: Slide rule measures up at £11,000
05 October 2020The invention of the gauger’s slide rule in the 1680s is generally credited to one Thomas Everard of Southampton.

Sundial and moon sketch draw demand in Plauen auction
28 September 2020Mehlis (23% buyer’s premium) in Plauen held its first sale of the new season on August 28-29. There was lively bidding, with a high proportion of the bidders joining in by phone.

Object lesson from Wimbledon fair: glass eyes
07 September 2020Though the first human in-socket artificial eyes were created by Venetian glassmakers c.16th century, the earliest evidence of ocular prosthesis was found in a female burial plot in Shahr-I Sokhta, Iran – dating back to 2900-2800 BC.

A detailed look at microscopes and much more
08 June 2020Fine examples lead an array of scientific instruments and photographica at specialist sale

Machine exerts a strong influence
06 April 2020The Wimshurst influence machine, an electrostatic generator capable of creating high voltages, was developed between 1880-83 by British inventor James Wimshurst (1832-1903).
Specialist firm adopts ‘live but online’ auction selling model
06 January 2020Scientific instruments and photographica specialist Flints Auctions has opened new premises and is launching a fresh type of sale.

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