Existing comment:
Desk Set with Telescope and Writing Utensils
first half of the 17th century
German
This skillfully turned ivory telescope is not functional: while its lenses can be directed, they are mounted too imprecisely for successful magnification. From the time they were invented in the early seventeenth century, telescopes were among the most favored scientific objects in the princely Kunstkammer, as their ground lenses allowed observation of celestial bodies invisible to the naked eye. Likely never used, this piece is more marvel than instrument, an expression of the importance of the observational possibilities promised by the telescope. |