A gilt-bronze mounted green stained horn cuff-type microscope, Louis XV, signed and dated 'Magny fecit Parisiis Anno 1754 N° 13'

The instrument's body with three lenses is mounted onto a rectangular pillar engraved with a positioning scale; coarse adjustment via flat rings and fine adjustment via screws. The stage is securely mounted onto a double arch support. It is fitted with a slide specimen. A reflector mirror is below. The eyepiece with two convex lenses can receive a micrometer. The set is supported by a curved-sided square pedestal fitted with a storage drawer for accessories including nine replacement lenses and a caliber. The pivoting of the instrument on its pedestal is effected via a lateral knob.

Collection Frédéric Spitzer (1815-1890), antiquaire et connoisseur; his posthumus sale in 1893, lot 2926;
Collection Nachet

Literature:
- Alexis Magny, « Mémoire présenté à l'Académie es Sciences, sur le microscope à trois verres et universel, perfectionné dans leurs verres ainsi que dans leurs montures », in Journal Œconomique..., January 1752, pp. 42-57
- Catalogue des objets d'art et de haute curiosité, antique, du Moyen Âge et de la Renaissance composant l'importante et précieuse collection Spitzer dont la vente aura lieu à Paris 33, rue Villejuste, ...le lundi 17 avril au vendredi 16 juin 1893, (...), 1893
- Albert Nachet, Collection Nachet : Instruments scientifiques et livres anciens. Notice sur l'invention du microscope et son évolution..., Paris, 1929
- Anthony Turner, « Two Dukes, a microscope and the making of Science à la mode », in Les Sciences à l'âge des Lumières. Actes du Colloque tenu au Château de la Roche Guyon, le 14 juin 2014, Paris, 2017, pp. 36-59

The illustration of the catalogue is accurate. Good overall condition. There are some lifting areas to the green tinted horn. Two screws on the base are missing. There are some stains to the gilding. The microscope would benefit from a gentle cleaning. Please note that we do not guarantee the mechanism is in working order. A beautiful scientific and artistic object.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

During the 1740s, Michel Ferdinand of Albert d'Ailly, Duke of Picquigny and 6th Duke of Chaulnes (1714-1769) developed a microscope which, according to Alexis Magny, brought together "All that the best Artists, all foreign as well as national, have come up with the best idea to make the use of this instrument more convenient and useful". The first model was presented to Louis XV by his supposed manufacturer, the elder Nicolas Noël (1712 / 13-1783), via the intermediary Chaulnes, the true designer of the instrument.


Having acquired the microscope by Chaulnes / Noël, Louis XV ordered a second to offer to his father-in-law Stanislas Leszczynski, former King of Poland. However, Stanislas was elderly, so there was a need to adapt the instrument so that he could use it seated. Magny was responsible for doing this. In eight days he modified the apparatus, adding an ebony eye guard and endowed the microscope with a magnifying power superior to that of the original model.


Based on this modified instrument (now at the Musée de Lorraine, Nancy), a series of more simplified apparatuses were developed by Magny during the following years. Instruments that he signed, dated and even, something exceptional for the time, numbered. Due to this initiative, we know today that he had produced at least nineteen examples. Among this number, six are known including the one enumerated 13, now presented for auction. The other copies are:

- The instrument offered to Stanislas Leszczynski, Musée de Lorraine, Nancy
- An instrument whose number is illegible, dated 1752, auctioned at Christie's South Kensington, London, 24 April 2013, lot 73
- Instrument no. 14 , 1754 also described in the Nachet collection catalogue
- Instrument no. 18, 1755, Nordiska Museet, Stokholm
- Instrument no. 19, 1755, the Louvre, Paris


Alexis Magny (fl.1734 - post 1792), was born in Namps-au-Monts, village south of Amiens. From 1733-1734 he worked as a mechanic for collector and art admirer Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson, the Duke of Chaulnes's brother in law.  After the death of the latter in 1744, Magny set up shop in the privileged locale of the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Près where he researched the production of marine compasses, and the manufacturing of these microscopes.

The family collection of Nachet company

Founded in 1839 by Camille Sébastien Nachet (1799-1881), Nachet company became one of the most famous optical manufacturers in France, notably for its microscopes. In order to trace the apparatus's evolution, his successor as management of the company until 1899, Jean Albert Nachet started a collection of antique instruments. Then Albert Nachet published the catalogue in 1929 where our microscope appears under no. 45. A large part of this collection was scattered during the 1970s.