Microscope « Marie type »

This type of microscope « Box » is said to have been invented by “Marie” in Paris at the end of the first half of the eighteenth century.

Provenance : ex-collection G. Bernard Paris.

Exhibition: This microscope bears, on the base plate, the label from the “Exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs” in 1936, on which is handwritten “M. G. Bernard”, well known Paris collector/dealer at the time.

Literature: A very similar one, signed “Marie à Paris” is in the “Musée de Arts et Métiers in Paris”. There is currently no study or biography dedicated to this manufacturer.

The only citation is in the catalog of the “Nachet collection” in which we read: "Marie, optician in Paris, supplied lenses to the Paris Observatory in 1736. We find this same name on a microscope close to the production by Passmant. In 1760, a widow Marie was established on Quai de l’Horloge”.

This microscope has great similarities with certain microscopes studied and illustrated in Dr. Alain Stenger's book "Illustrated History of the Box Microscope" (2014), in particular with No. 9 signed J.-B. Gonichon (c. 1745) that we sold to the Diderot Museum in Langres, n° 11 signed Claude Paris (c. 1745/50) and n° 13 which would be the only known copy signed by Marie (son) c. 1750/55), preserved at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers Paris.

Dimensions: height of 29,30 cm x width of 13,5 cm x depth of 13,5 cm.

Paris circa 1745.

Reference : D ex MO

Price on request.

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