Telescope - 1800-1850 - Ramsden

18th-century spyglass

By the famous London optician Jesse Ramsden.

Georgian period, 1780-1800.

This high-precision instrument is a direct witness to the Golden Age of privateering, buccaneering, and the great privateer captains who plied the maritime lanes.

These long-range models were particularly expensive, reserved for high-ranking officers, wealthy privateer captains, or aristocrats.

Finding a 5-draw model with its original leather case and Ramsden signature has become extremely rare.

Of the quantity produced 230 years ago, a vast majority were lost at sea, destroyed during the Napoleonic wars, or simply cast aside through the centuries.

Not being a specialist, the optics are sold incomplete (inner lenses potentially missing or displaced).

23 cm folded
87 cm extended
6 cm in diameter