Maker: Unknown

Year: 1628 c.

Year Range: -

Year Notes:

Manufacturing Location: Augsburg, Germany

Signature:

Signature Notes:

Inscriptions:

No stand present.

Collection: Kunstgewerbemuseum / Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

Accession #: 47717

Sources:

Bolt & Korey, "The world's oldest telescopes," in THE ORIGINS OF THE TELESCOPE (Amsterdam, 2011), pp. 242-5.

Public Notes:

Study of the telescope from the Pommerscher Kunstschrank (Bolt and Korey, 2011, p.235 no.1) led the authors to consider whether another Kunstschrank or similarly complex piece of upper-end furniture might have a telescope associated with it (Cf. Hauschke, ‘Scientific Instruments’ (2006), for instruments in this context). This led to the identification of a collapsible desk-table at the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts) in Pillnitz, near Dresden, which had been ascribed to the circle of Philipp Hainhofer of Augsburg (cf. No. 1). Continued investigation of archival sources and prior inventories of the contents of the desk-table led to an unidentified leather object in storage. Inspection showed that it contained glass lenses and was undoubtedly a telescope; it is presented here for the first time.

This thin telescope has three pasteboard draws and a main tube decorated in gold-tooled leather. The leather is abraded in many places, but certain details of the tooling (a small bird, fleur de lis) are visible upon close examination. It has a plano-convex objective and a plano-concave eyepiece; as in No. 1, both planar surfaces face outward. The objective of diameter 31 mm has been stopped down by a lignum vitae ring to c. 18 mm; the eyepiece of diameter 23 mm has a free opening of 12 mm. The lenses could be removed for optical measurement and proved to have focal lengths of c. 1010 mm and 78 mm, respectively, yielding a magnification of 13 times (note that it was not possible to remove the second draw, but extrapolating from the lengths of the main tube and the first and third draws, the total length of this instrument was surely long enough to accommodate the requisite separation of the two lenses, namely 932 mm = 1010 mm – 78 mm). Though the inner diameters decline from 34 mm for the main tube to 27 mm for the innermost draw, the outer diameters appear to be constant (two rings are missing), yielding the familiar cylindrical form when the instrument is drawn in.

The collapsible desk-table (the so-called Arbeitstisch) is thought to have belonged to Electress Magdalena Sibylla (1586-1659), second wife of Elector Johann Georg I of Saxony (reigned 1611-1656). Besides the telescope presented here, it contains a virginal and compartments for a wide range of mathematical instruments and writing implements, an apothecary, board games and a folding armchair, all of which can be collapsed to rest on top of, or nestle within, the long, flat rectangular wooden base of the desk. Another piece of complex furniture in the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Pillnitz is often regarded as the pendant to this Arbeitstisch: the portable hunting and tool chest (so-called Jagd- und Werkzeugtisch, inv.-nr. 47724) belonging to Elector Johann Georg. Interestingly, it is her furniture, not his, that contains mathematical instruments, a musical keyboard and the telescope described here. It should also be recalled that the Electress possessed her own Kunstkammer, which was visited by Philipp Hainhofer on his second trip to Dresden in 1629 (That is, if these attributions are correct. A 1636 inventory of the contents of the Jagd- und Werkzeugtisch is preserved in the Armoury (Rüstkammer) in Dresden – see Eichhorn, ‘Kunstkammertische.’ By contrast, no seventeenth-century inventory of the contents of the Arbeitstisch is currently known; the first such inventory is from 1741, which includes an entry for the telescope, describing it simply as a ‘perspectiv’ on fol. 132v).

Many stylistic associations link both these works to the circle of Hainhofer – and to those which have been noted before we now add the observation how the marbled paper used to line several compartments of the Arbeitstisch closely resembles that used on the draws of the telescope from the Pommerscher Kunstschrank (No. 1). Moreover, there is also some evidence – in the form of payment receipts – that both pieces may have been acquired from Hainhofer shortly after his 1629 visit. In addition, an inventory of the contents of the desk-table includes a calendar from 1628, which may tentatively be taken as for the dating of the telescope (The 1741 inventory of the Electoral Kunstkammer in Dresden lists a ‘printed and illuminated calendar from 1628’ on fol. 132v. In describing a calendar contained within the Hainhofer Kunstschrank now in Uppsala, Böttiger drew a parallel to the Dresden Arbeitstisch, mentioning that it also held an almanac by Georg Galgenmeyer for 1628 – see Böttiger, Kunstschrank, 3, 1910, 22 nr. 15). Alas, no such calendar is preserved in the collections in Dresden and Pillnitz). If the connections to Augsburg can be strengthened, then it is even tempting to speculate that Johann Wiesel might have been the maker of this telescope (cf. Bolt and Korey, 2011, p.244 no. 20, and 21).

The presence of a telescope in such a noble setting underscores how the users of ‘scientific instruments’ in the early modern period were not just scholars such as astronomers, navigators, and the like, but also wealthy patrons and collectors; indeed, these categories often overlapped. Optical devices in such settings are often specifically described as intended to amuse the eyes (For example, the Hainhofer Kunstschrank in Uppsala contains a flea glass, a pair of faceted, ‘vexier’ eyeglasses, and a paperweight in the form of a prism; an analogous object in the collection of Duchess Sophia Elisabeth of Braunschweig is described in 1636 as ‘a 3-sided glass, with which to refresh the eyes, around and about which one can see rainbows, as well as to be used to weigh down letters on a table’ – cf. Böttiger, Kunstschrank, 3, 1910; 21 nr. 12. See also Dupré & Korey, ‘Optical objects’, 2009). Telescopes and other instruments in a Kunstkammer or a Kunstschrank functioned in ways beyond the practical and the technical; their decorative elements and location alongside other collectables tell their stories in ways as significant as their optical performances. By locating and examining surviving telescopes in such social settings as the princely court, we may learn a great deal more about the history and functions of scientific instruments and natural philosophy in an earlier era.

OBJECTIVE NOTES:
When focused at infinity, the separation between lenses is 935 mm. Cf. 932mm in publication. Planar side may actually be slightly (and variably) concave. Objective focal length is 1010 mm, giving an ocular focal length of 78 mm.

Length (open):

Length (closed):

F-ratio:

Exit pupil:

Object status:

Objective type: unconfirmed

Optical style

Physical style

Functional style

Materials: wood, pasteboard, leather, glass, gold tooling

Drawtube data:

Drawtube notes:

Objective Data

Eyepieces

Notes: