Intricate and detailed hand-carved features are readily evident on this microscope, which was made by John Finlayson around 1740. The illustration below has been redrawn from photographs of the original microscope, which is featured in Gerard Turner's excellent book Collecting Microscopes, a volume in Christie's International Collectors Series of books on antiques.

The entire microscope is fashioned from a very dark wood, in a Scottish-style that is one of the most elegant of the time period. An eight-sided base with a drawer serves as a support for the twin wooden microscope limbs, which hold a mirror where the specimen is placed. The body is also fashioned from wood hand has a draw tube that can be moved inward and outward to focus the specimen. A single eye lens and objective are used to magnify specimen details.

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