Dealers Matthew Nunn and Keith Petts and auctioneer Jonathan Brown set up earlier this year, holding this first sale at the Stoke Newington West Reservoir Centre in north London.
The firm said around 90% of lots were sold online with close to a third of those going to overseas buyers. The hammer total of the 205-lot sale was £58,875.
Among the individual highlights was a Foucault-Secretan reflecting telescope c.1858. Estimated at £3000-5000, it was hammered down at £5200.
Made in polished French walnut, this was the first telescope to use glass as the reflecting mirror, with all modern reflecting telescopes based on this design. Although made in large numbers, due to their fragile nature few survived. This example is thought to be a prototype as it does not have a serial number.
A late 19th century dissected human skull, in a glazed case with painted areas to show major vessels and nerves, took £1900 (estimate £800-1200) while an Edmund Wheeler ‘Stand A’ compound binocular microscope sold on its low estimate at £4000. The latter, made in London c.1870, had last been sold by Sotheby’s in 2001.
