Brass 2-inch Varley's Patent Graphic Telescope

Brass 2-inch Varley's Patent Graphic Telescope, London, with 11-inch lg. tube, two drawers, and 45º speculum mirror, (lacquer worn, lens chipped, incomplete); three attachments in a mahogany case; and an artificial horizon. Note: Designed by Cornelius Varley (1781-1873), watercolor painter, inventor and a founding member of the Microscopical Society of London, the Graphic Telescope is described in his 1845 Treatise on Optical Drawing Instruments : "All these obstacles are removed, and the artist set quite at liberty by the Graphic Telescope, with which the most distant views, or the nearest objects, may be traced of any required size." The instrument would originally have allowed its user to choose the scale of his drawing, as well as the degree of perspective, with the possibility of using it for close-up work as a microscope by rack and pinion focusing and a pillar with clamp (missing on this example).