Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

 

    

Microscope 321 (L Casella; garden or seed microscope; c. 1870)

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Louis Pascal Casella, originally from Edinburgh, moved to London to work with Caesar Tagliabue, entering a partnership with him in 1838, after marrying his daughter. Caesar died in 1844 and, in 1848, the firm was renamed to Louis Casella & Co. After Louis death in 1897, his son Charles Frederic took over the firm changing the name to CF Casella & Co. Microscope 321 is a Cary/Gould-type microscope engraved with ‘Garden microscope, Casella, London’, and should be dated to c. 1870. This microscope is described in an 1871 catalogue of the firm as a “Garden or seed microscope, a simple and compound instrument expressly arranged by L. Casella, for the various requirements of gardeners, and also as an excellent companion to the aquarium and the sea side” (Figure 1).

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Figure 1. Casella’s garden or seed microscope as engraved in an 1871 catalogue of the firm.