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Microscope Museum Collection of antique microscopes and other
scientific instruments |
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Microscope
314 (Hartnack & Prazmowski;
microscope stand III; c. 1880) The origins of Hartnack & Prazmowski were
in the Parisian optical business founded by Georg Oberhaeuser,
who popularised Martin’s drum microscope pattern and developed the
horseshoe-footed continental stand. Oberhaeuser
began his business in c. 1830 (his shop was located at 19 Place Dauphine in
1832). In 1854, he formed a partnership with his assistant Hartnack (who started working with Oberhaeuser
in 1847) and retired shortly afterwards in 1854. The business operated as “Oberhaeuser and Hartnack” until
1859, when Hartnack became the sole owner and the firm became simply “Hartnack”.
Hartnack left France in 1870, at the outbreak of
the Franco-Prussian War, and went to establish a business in Potsdam, near
Berlin, known as Hartnack. The Paris business
continued as “Hartnack et Cie”
and, later, in 1873, Hartnack and Prazmowski (moving to 1 Rue Bonaparte). Prazmowski took sole ownership of the Paris business in
1878, and later, in 1883, passed it on to his employees Bézu
and Hausser. The firm became “Bézu,
Hausser et Cie”, although
they continued to use Prazmowski’s name until his
death in 1885. They sold the business to Alfred Nachet
in 1896. Hartnack’s Potsdam business continued
after his death until well into the 1900s. Microscope 314 was made by Hartnack & Prazmowski, was
known as stand III (Figure 1), and can be dated to c. 1880. The draw tube of
the microscope is engraved with ‘Mon E. Hart. & A. Praz., A. Prazmowski sucr, Rue Bonaparte 1, Paris’. There is no
indication of serial number in the instrument. Figure
1. Hartnack
& Prazmowski’s stand III microscope as engraved
in Leopold Dippel’s “Das Mikroskop”
(1882) References Georg Johann Oberhäuser / Georges Jean Oberhaeuser, 1798-1868; Friedrich Edmund Hartnack, 1826-1891; Adam Prażmowski, 1821-1885 (http://microscopist.net/Oberhaeuser.html), last accessed on 21/01/2021 E. Hartnack: Kleines Hufeisenmikroskop (http://www.museum-optischer-instrumente.de/Hartnack_11186.html), last
accessed on 21/01/2021 Bézu, Hausser, and Company, 1883 – 1896 (http://microscopist.net/BezuHausser.html), last
accessed on 21/01/2021 Hartnack & Prazmowsky (Bezu & Haussier Suc.rs) model IIIA , Paris 1885-1896 (http://www.igm.cnr.it/1/pagine-personali/maga-giovanni/maga-microscopes/hartnack/), last accessed on 21/01/2021 Sigmund Freud’s microscope – on the 150th birthday anniversary of the histologist (http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artoct06/mc-freud.html), last accessed on 21/01/2021 HARTNACK Friedrich Edmund, 1826-1891, PRAZMOWSKI Adam 1821-1885 (http://histoiredumicroscope.com/hartnack-prazmowski/), last accessed on 21/01/2021 OBERHAUSER Georges, 1798-1868, HARTNACK Friedrich Edmund, 1826-1891 (http://histoiredumicroscope.com/hartnack-e-suc-oberhauser-g/), last accessed on 21/01/2021 View from the dog house (https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2020/11/view-from-the-dog-house/), last accessed on 21/01/2021 |