DESCRIPTION:

This is a an example of one of the small microscopes marketed by James Parkes & Son of Birmingham, England in the second half of the nineteenth century. It is signed 'J. Parkes & Son, Birmingham' on the attached brass plate on the foot, with a second plate signed 'Trade, Mark' on the left side with the Parkes 'eye' on the right with a screw in between. The lister-limb construction is supported on a tripod, the top of which has two short vertical plates, supporting the trunnion inclination joint on either side. Coarse focus is by rack and pinion, the rack suspended between two short arms, one at the upper end and one at the lower end of the rack. There is no drawtube. There is a nosepiece fine adjustment to the right side. The objective is divisible. The stage is round and would have supported a gliding slide holder (not present but a replica may be possible). The mirror is plano on one side and convex on the other side. The gimbaled mirror housing is of lacquered brass, and rides on a sleeve which can move up or down on the tailpiece projcting down from the limb.

This microscope came to me completely refinished. The iron tripod and limb were repainted a pleasing dark green, but were likely originally a flat black. The brass parts have been relaquered. When I received it, the optical tube was attached to the coarse focus arms in a off-center position by super glue(!), and the screws were just the heads cemented into the holes(!) I cleaned off the glue and replaced all the screws after redrilling and retapping the holes to accomodate them. Damage to the tube finish from the glue still shows in the area around the right upper arm, and a few areas were obviously heavily polished, particularly the nosepiece and the objective. Such treatment rounds off the machining marks and is inappropriate. When received it was a good example of a poorly restored microscope. It now is a passable instrument which serves as a reminder of poor experiences in collecting, but still has a pleasing form. A similar instrument of the same form, but with better objectives, was sold by Skinner in Boston on April 28, 2017, lot 397.

HISTORY OF PARKES MICROSCOPES

Some of Parkes' microscopes had the brass plate unsigned (presumably for a retailer to affix his own signature), some with the Parkes & Son signature, and some with the Parkes' trademark of an "eye." Catalogs from 1848 through 1903 are known. Parkes sold a variety of different types of scientific instruments in addition to microscopes. Few Parkes microscopes are first class instruments.