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.
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.
Pick of the week: No.1 microscope proves it’s still the best
28 October 2019The opening lot of Flints Auctions’ photographica and scientific instruments sale in Reading on October 18 was an exceptional Victorian microscope.
Fair sets sights on science
02 September 2019Dealer Peter Delehar brings an example of a pioneering protractor to the second edition of the Antique Scientific Instrument Fair.
Apollo 11 footage tops Sotheby’s space auction on 50th anniversary of moon landing
24 July 2019NASA videotape recordings of the Apollo 11 mission topped Sotheby’s Space Exploration Sale held on the 50th anniversary of the first manned moon landing.
Chinese Qing dynasty musical automaton clock – an amalgam of ingenuity and technical prowess – fetches over £1m at auction
24 June 2019A Chinese musical automaton clock sailed over the £1m mark when it came up for sale at the Drouot auction centre in Paris.
Nodding magician looks to cast spell at Potter & Potter
10 June 2019This c.1900 French automaton is included in the next sale held by Chicago saleroom Potter & Potter specialist auction house of magic props and memorabilia.
Thomas Mercer chronometer made in modern times doubles estimate in Gloucestershire
10 June 2019By the 1980s, Thomas Mercer of St Albans had made almost a third of all chronometers in history – including that used by Ernest Shackleton to navigate his men to Elephant Island and eventual rescue during the Trans-Arctic Expedition of 1914.
Chiswick Auctions offers chronometer with Titanic connection
10 June 2019During an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic in 1996, a marine chronometer made by JW Ray, Liverpool, was recovered and brought ashore.
The web shop window: 19th century pill-making machine
27 May 2019Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.
Antique "writing ball" typewriter designed by principal of institute for the deaf stars in German auction
21 May 2019There was not one single inventor of the typewriter.
Fine scrimshaw sells in Scarborough
18 February 2019Two fine examples of scrimshaw were eagerly contested at the David Duggleby (21% buyer’s premium inc VAT) Scarborough auction of maritime antiques and instruments.
Seven fabulous gadgets and machines to buy at auction
25 January 2019Contraptions from the past can be fascinating, whether designed to save time or entertain.
Flint strikes right technological notes
19 November 2018A c.1855-60 camera and a c.1930-40 high precision lens provided two star items at photographic and scientific auction house Flints’ (20% buyer’s premium) latest sale to attract worldwide attention.
Transit instruments measure up in Newbury sale
22 October 2018Probably a puzzle to all but experts in the field, the item shown below is a transit instrument – one of three which all went well above estimates at a cameras and scientific instruments sale held by Special Auctions Services (17.5% buyer’s premium).
From $300 to $300,000 – Apple-1 computer sells at Boston auction
29 September 2018An Apple-1 computer bought for $300 in the late 1970s has sold at an auction in Boston for $300,000 (£228,730) – $375,000 with buyer’s premium.
Swan’s first bulb sheds light on Bonhams science and technology auction
24 September 2018One of the earliest surviving incandescent light bulbs, made by the English physicist Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (1828-1914) in the 1870s, sold for £7500 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at Bonhams’ sale titled Instruments of Science and Technology.
Fair sales of art and antiques at Saatchi and LAPADA
24 September 2018The relaunched British Art Fair opened with a flurry of sales at its new London venue, the Saatchi Gallery.
Shedding light on the first incandescent bulbs
20 September 2018One of the earliest surviving incandescent light bulbs, made by the English physicist Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (1828-1914) in the 1870s, was snapped up at auction at Bonhams.
Collection from the ‘father of forensic medicine’ and photography pioneer comes to auction in Suffolk
04 September 2018The collection of photography pioneer and medical writer Alfred Swaine Taylor (1806-80) is to be offered at auction house Lacy Scott & Knight in Bury St Edmunds in October following the success of a first sale last year.
Society lays its cards on the table to boost fair numbers
25 June 2018The long-running Antique Scientific Instrument Fair has been given a boost by the Scientific Instrument Society (SIS).
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