$1,845
Bronze Art Nouveau Porter Garden Telescope Frame, No. 43, pierced base with hour ring divided in ten minute intervals IX - 0 - IX , lotus leaf base marked The Porter Garden Telescope, Built and Sold by Jones & Lamson Machine Co., Springfield Vermont , slender leaf rising to the spring-loaded eyepiece attachment, ht. 33 in. Note: Designed by Russell Porter (1871-1949), artist, arctic explorer, engineer, and pioneer of amateur astronomy in America. The influence of his work can be seen in places diverse as the Smithsonian Institute and the 200-inch Hale Telescope on Mt. Palomar in California. Porter's goal was to create an instrument that would be ornamental and practical in equal degrees, useful in observing the surrounding landscape or celestial objects. Beginning c. 1923, the Porter Garden Telescopes were produced by the Jones and Lamson Machine Company of Vermont. They were originally supplied with a compendium of accessories, including double eyepieces (for two people using the telescope simultaneously), which dismantled with the mirror and the prism, to stow in a purpose-fitted case when not in use. Provenance: From the collection of Don Yeier.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2014-11-01
