Beschreibung:

A fine Victorian mahogany microscope slide cabinet containing a collection of specimens and microphotographs The cabinet by R. and J. Beck, London, circa 1877 With substantial hinged brass handle to the ogee moulded top over rectangular glazed front door enclosing twenty-eight blue velvet lined drawers each containing an approximate average of twenty-five microscope specimen slides mostly professionally prepared comprising some geological and mineral samples alongside marine zoological and diatoms including examples labelled W. WATSON & SONS, 313 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON; W. A. FIRTH; FLATTERS & GARNETT L.T.D., 309 OXFORD RD., MANCHESTER; SMITH BECK & BECK, 31 Cornhill E.C.; NEWTON & Co., 3 Fleet St., Temple Bar, LONDON and H. W. H. DARLASTON, BIRCHFIELD, BIRMINGHAM, the lower three shallow slide drawers containing a collection of microphotograph slides comprising forty-three with titled labels initialled J. B. D. for John B. Dancer of 43 Cross Street, Manchester including PORTRAITS, OF THE, PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES, FROM WASHINGTON TO, J. BUCHANAN ; four with similar labels initialled A. R. for Albert Reeves of Tottenham Road, St. Giles, Middlesex; seventeen labelled A PHOTOGRAPHIC CURIOSITY, FOR THE MICROSCOPE and incorporating the initials J. S. for John Charles Stovin and approximately thirty-five others labelled either for further makers/retailers or unsigned, the final deep drawer with card slips containing approximately one hundred additional specimen slides over lower rail applied with inset trade label inscribed R. & J. BECK, 31. CORNHILL, LONDON, the top with silver presentation plaque engraved PRESENTED TO, THE, Rev’d W. Tuckwell, BY HIS ASSISTANT MASTERS, at the College School. Taunton, IN TOKEN OF THEIR SYMPATHY. AND OF THEIR, ADMIRATION OF HIS SERVICES FOR, HIGHER EDUCATION, Christmas 1877, the cabinet 39cm (15.5ins) wide. Provenance: The Maurice Gillett collection of microscopy including inventory refs. G1120 (the cabinet); G815-9, 821 and 822, 824-26, 828-30; G2499; G3010, 3012, 3015 and 3016, 3019 and 3020, 3023-6 and 3029. The presentation plaque applied to the lid of the current lot relates to The Reverend William Tuckwell who was born in 1784. His father was a major physician at the Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford and he initially attended a public school in Hammersmith then Winchester College before reading Literary Humanities at New College, Oxford from which he graduated in 1852. After a short period teaching in Ireland William Tuckwell was ordained and became curate of St. Mary Magdalen in Oxford from 1857-64. He then moved to teach at the Grammar School in Taunton where he oversaw the expansion of the campus and reformed the curriculum before becoming head of Natural Sciences at what was now the Taunton Collegiate School. Tuckwell’s tolerance with regards to accepting pupils from non-conformist and Catholic backgrounds lead to friction within the predominantly Anglican institution the pressure of which precipitated his resignation in 1877. The cabinet in the current lot was a parting gift from those at the college who held him in high regard. Latterly Tuckwell served the Parish of Stockton, Warwickshire and became actively involved in political discourse championing Christian socialism and Liberalism. In 1905 he went to live with his brother-in-law, Charles Wentworth Dilke, 2nd Baronet, and died in 1919. The partnership between Richard and Joseph Beck is recorded in Banfield, Edwin BAROMETER MAKERS AND RETAILERS 1660-1900 as first working from 31 Cornhill 1867-80 and then 68 Cornhill from 1868. They were best known for supplying microscopes and other optical instruments which were presumably constructed in their factory at Lister Works, Kentish Town, Holloway, East London. Banfield further notes that they often signed their instruments 'R & J Beck Ltd' from 1894. John Benjamin Dancer is recorded in Clifton, Gloria Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851 as trading from 13 Cross Street