$1,400
Compound Microscope with Civil War Photograph, of lacquered brass, engraved on tube Pistor & Martins, Berlin, No. 706 , with rackwork coarse focusing on triangular pillar, fine focusing by sprung rod adjusted with a knurled wheel and locked in place by a threaded screw, eyepiece, objective, circular glass stage (center chipped), and cylindrical base with cut-away for concave mirror, ht. closed 10 in., in fitted figured mahogany case containing forceps, two bone and fourteen horn (many damaged) specimen slides. Provenance: Included with the microscope is a carte de visite photograph of Dr. J.R. Wolfe F.R. F.P.S. (1823-1904) by the Scottish photographer G.W. Wilson, a short printed biography of Dr. Wolfe, and a carte de visite of a Union officer by Civil War photographer Matthew Brady. Born in Breslau, Hungary, John Reissberg Wolfe first appears in Glasgow Directory in 1853, and then upon graduating from Glasgow University in 1856 (having apparently changed his name) as Dr. J. Robert Wolfe. He studied ophthalmology in Paris and served as Lancet correspondent during the Italian uprisings in Messina and Palmero in 1860. His reports on the hospital conditions faced by Garibaldi's soldiers was described as being "fierce and intelligent criticism." Wolfe eventually returned to Scotland and a celebrated career as a pioneering eye surgeon, founder of the Glasgow Ophthalmic Institute, and Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Glasgow. Rackwork sticking, some wear to l Read more…
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2008-08-23
