Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

 

      

Microscope 607 (assigned to J. Parkes & Son; compound microscope; c. 1860)

A close-up of a microscope Description automatically generatedA close-up of a microscope Description automatically generatedA close-up of a microscope Description automatically generatedA close-up of a microscope Description automatically generatedA close-up of a microscope Description automatically generatedA close-up of a microscope Description automatically generatedA wooden box with a brass object inside Description automatically generatedA wooden box with a keyhole Description automatically generated

Based in Birmingham, England, Parkes produced good quality microscopes and other scientific equipment and supplies from the mid-1800s until well into the twentieth century. Recognizing the burgeoning market of students and middle-class amateurs, they focused on inexpensive instruments. James Parkes began his business in 1815 as a manufacturer of small items such as jewellery cases and other metal devices. James’ only son, Samuel, became a partner in about 1846, forming J Parkes and Son. By the 1850s, J. Parkes and Son were producing a variety of microscopes. Their 1857 catalogue prominently featured microscopes and prepared slides. Large numbers are known of later microscope models that were manufactured by J Parkes and Son but sold by other retailers. Samuel continued the business under the same name after his father’s death in 1877. Samuel had only one son, also named Samuel. That son, and a nephew, James Moulton, continued the business after the elder Samuel died in 1896. Moulton left the partnership in 1908, and Samuel T.H. Parkes continued alone for several additional years, at least until the late 1920s. Microscope 607 is not signed but is identical to a Parkes & Son instrument named as compound microscope in an 1857 catalogue of the firm (Figure 1). This simple compound microscope should be dated to c. 1860 and was described in the 1857 Parkes & Son’s catalogue as a microscope “… with joint to incline the body to any angle; rack movement, concave mirror, condenser, 1½ inch object glass, and achromatic combination forming two powers, tweezers, glass slides, and half a dozen best objects, in portable mahogany lock-up case”. The same microscope was not featured in the 1862 catalogue of the firm.

A drawing of a microscope Description automatically generated

Figure 1. Compound microscope, with joint to incline the body to any angle, as engraved in a J Parkes & Son’s 1857 catalogue. The same microscope and description appeared in the catalogues of other firms at the time, such as in the 1857 catalogue of Spencer, Browning & Co. (London).