Pocket telescope

This achromatic telescope has eight brass draw tubes, allowing it to be folded up quite small for easy carrying. The barrel is decorated with tortoiseshell. The brass fittings include an objective lens cap and a sliding eyepiece cover.

The maker, whose name is given as 'Rossi / Norwich' on the smallest draw tube, is George Rossi, known to have been working in Norwich in the 1820s and 1830s.

A second inscription on the same tube, which is only partially legible, records the gift of the telescope: ‘To Edgar Tay[…] the / Bishop of Norwich / October 1841’. However Edward Stanley was Bishop of Norwich from 1837-49.

Object Details

ID: NAV1677
Collection: Astronomical and navigational instruments
Type: Pocket telescope
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Rossi, George; Rossi
Date made: 1841
People: Norwich, Bishop of; Rossi, George
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Measurements: Overall: 150 mm; Diameter: 49 mm
Parts: Pocket telescope