This Culpeper style microscope really is a beautiful microscope in 'as found' condition.

The maker Joseph Linnell was known to be working from around 1764 - 1775, although it isn't known if he was actually making the microscopes or just selling microscopes made by others. He had taken over the Ayscough firm which sold Spectacles and listed as an optician.

This example is marked J. Linnell Ludgate Street London

This is a basic style Culpeper and of intermediate size. I have left this alone as I understand that cleaning these is something that really should only be undertaken by an expert in antique microscopes, I often say with tools that they can be over cleaned and certainly de-valued by doing so, with this I would think once the damage is done by polishing the life out of it, which may may make it look nice and shiney but won't do it any favours.

The box is damaged and could be be repaired, the box was actually found in a workshop empty and propping up a work bench!

My online shop www.thetoolsquirrel.co.uk you will find plenty of vintage tools.

Many Thanks,

Nigel    

Welcome to The Tool Squirrel,

Everyday in life I think we never stop learning and should always be open to trying new things, well for me this isn't just the first blog from The Tool Squirrel, it is the first blog I have written!

I will keep this short this time, I guess if I wrote down as much as I can talk then we would be here a very long time, so today I am just going to give a quick overview of what the next few months I hope to achieve on here.

I have had many years experience in buying and selling tools, it has been my full time job for a number of years now and though I do say this quite often I really love doing what I do, everyday is different, from buying tools never knowing quite what you may find, to cleaning, taking photo's of them, selling, packing, it is an ongoing task but one that is very enjoyable.

In the next few months and beyond I will be uploading tools at least once a week, it should be nearly everyday  but sometimes there aren't enough hours in the day! Over time I hope this will build up to quite a substantial online shop that gives potential customers and people with just an interest of old tools to browse through the stock and appreciate not only the quality of how old tools were made but a look at some tools that have out lived the trades they were once made for. I often have people say to me that "I haven't seen one of those tools for years" and "my grandad had one of those", old tools can bring back memories and smiles to peoples faces which i think can only be a good thing.

On some occasions for tools that aren't for sale (yet!) I will take some photo's and put on a blog page so please keep check out these pages when you next visit.

Thanks for reading,

All the best,

Nigel