Accession No

6062

Brief Description

Solar viewer; English; 2/2 18th century. Possibly made for viewing the transit of Venus (1761 and 1769)

Origin

England

Maker

Class

astronomy; optical

Earliest Date

1750

Latest Date

1800

Inscription Date

Material

wood (lignum vitae); metal (brass); glass

Dimensions

length 80mm; width 27mm; depth 10mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Tesseract, Box 151, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York 10706, U.S.A., on or before 17/02/2006. Tesseract catalogue 81, Winter 2005/2006.

Inscription

Description Notes

Solar viewer; English; 2/2 18th century. Possibly made for viewing the transit of Venus (1761 and 1769).

Early English solar viewer in lignum vitae wood.

Round wooden head with viewing aperture containing darkened glass filter coloured purple and held in place by a brass spring ring. Obverse of viewer decorated with milled concentric rings. Turned wooden handle with rounded end for holding.

References

Events