A high-powered cylindrical lens folding into metal covers by a swivelling arm. The silver-metal mounting is inscribed: 'H.E.J.', 'Charles William Rilbey'. At the hinge-point there is a suspension loop.

The power of the lens and very limited field of view indicate a specialised use. It may be for the examination of detail on prints and drawings, since it appears to have been presented, in 1944, by Carl Robert Rudolf (c.1884-1974) a well-known collector of them. By profession a dentist, he originally collected books and prints, before moving on to Old Master drawings of which he had a thousand by 1962. He was invited to become a fellow of the Hunterian Society in 1929 and thereafter became honorary curator of its library. The reason he presented this item when he did, and the significance of its inscriptions, are not yet clear. There is a small collection of Rudolf's papers in Southampton University Library (MS215). [PvdM 1/18]