Two Victorian brass microscopes and a table magnifier, including a ball foot example with two boxes of slide samples plus another by Carl Reichert with a very rare early illumination system and a brass table magnifier. The brass ball foot field microscope dates from the late Victorian era approximately 1880–1890. It has a circular base, single pillar, rack and pinion focus, and swing-out mirror, was typical for portable educational, amateur scientific, or field-use microscopes from this period. Also included in the sale are two boxes of 'One Shilling Packet of Micro Objects' from the same period, they were sold for amateur microscopy use and contain a variety of samples for mounting, in this case 'Textile Fibres' and 'Ferns in Fruit". Both boxes come complete with their contents. The Microscope stands 28.5cm (11.22") high. The second is a brass microscope with an integral transmitted illumination system by Carl Reichert engraved 'C. REICHERT WIEN VIII Bennogasse 26' in Vienna Austria and with the serial number '12586' allowing us to date the microscope to 1898. It has a twin objective turret with twin coarse focus and single fine focus controls and a focussing condenser, there is a field lens and filter carrier on top of the light box which in turn holds a primitive transformer system and rheostat control. The integral illumination system was designed to provide transmitted light for viewing specimens, it houses a lamp and related controls, the circular aperture and iris diaphragm on top of the box controls the amount of light passing up through the condenser and onto the specimen. The bulb and components are present and intact but untested, the slide retaining clips and the screws retaining the base plate are replacements, the microscope is in good working order. This would have been a cutting edge piece of equipment in it's day and is now an extremely rare item and a superb collectors item. Carl Reichert was an optician who established one of the principal microscope manufacturing firms in Europe in the late 19th century. Reichert married into the Leitz family in 1874 (and was son in law of Ernst Leitz). In 1876 in Vienna, he founded the Optische Werke C. Reichert. He employed some Leitz technicians, explaining one reason why his products were so similar to those of Ernst Leitz of Wetzlar. Reichert designed new lenses, lighting equipment for microscopes, and one of the first microscopes for the study of metal surfaces. Instruments were usually signed "C. Reichert, Wien". The Microscope stands 36cm (14") high when extended 33cm (13") when not. An antique Table Magnifier on tripod legs for documents and maps, fashioned from brass and dating from the 19th century, measuring 5.5cm (2.17") wide by 4.7cm (1.85") high.