A Franks (Manchester, England)

A. Franks Ltd was an optician and instrument maker which traded between 1879 and 1950. Founded in the latter part of the 19th century by Louis Aubrey Franks, they traded originally as 'L.A. Franks' from Manchester, listed as a manufacturer of photographic apparatus, optician and scientific instrument maker. Following a bankruptcy in 1879, a new firm was formed soon after, an optician trading as A. Franks.

A Williams (London, England)

No additional information was found about the company A. Williams & Co other than the associated address “Wood Green, London”, as described in 1912 Charles Hall’s book “How to use the microscope, a guide for the novice”.

Aitchison (London, England)

James Aitchison founded his first optical business in 1889 at Fleet Street, London, England. The firm Aitchison and Co. merged with Dollond & Co. in 1927 to form Dollond & Aitchison. The business was absorbed into Boots Opticians in 2009 and stores were rebranded under the Boots Opticians name, completed in 2015.

Angus Henderson (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Angus Henderson was an optician in Edinburgh. He worked at the address 23 South Hanover Street from 1861 to 1868. Microscopes signed by this firm are very rare.

Arnold and Sons (London, England)

James Arnold began his career as an instrument maker in London in 1829. By 1841, the company (at 35 Smithfield) was known as James & John Arnold, surgeon’s instrument makers. In 1857, the name of the company changed to James Arnold & Sons. In their illustrated catalogue in 1873 they were listed as instrument makers by appointment to Her Majesty’s Government, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, The Great Northern Hospital, The Royal Veterinary College and The Seamen’s Hospital. By 1882, they had greatly expanded their range of products. The company held premises on 31 West Smithfield and 1-3 and 15-16 Giltspur Street, London, as well as showrooms at 50 - 60 Wigmore Street, London. In the 1920s, they were incorporated into John Bell & Croydon Ltd and in 1928 the company was bought by Savory & Moore, a chemist company known for producing American dentifrice, tooth powders, medicines, and perfumes that had three shops in London and one in Brighton. In 1953, the company was renamed it Arnold & Sons Veterinary Instruments Ltd in London and Arnold & Sons Basildon Ltd in Essex. The name changed again in 1985, when the company became Arnold Surgical Ltd. It was dissolved in 2004.

Banks Bros (Bolton, England)

Limited information is available about the company Banks Bros. The only reference found to this company was in an 1881 edition of the journal “The Northern Microscopist”, where we can read “On Nov. 19th, the third annual Conversazione of this Society ‘Bolton Microscopical Society’ was held in the Albert Hall … As to microscope stands and objectives, nearly all the leading makers in this country were well represented. Messrs. Ross and Co., Smith and Beck, Messrs. R. and J. Beck, Messrs Swift and Son, Crouch, Baker, Dancer, Parkes and Banks Bros., of Corporation Street, Bolton, all seemed to have found purchasers in the members of this Society”.

Benn Franks (Hull, England)

Benn Franks was born in Manchester in 1862, the seventh of the ten children, and by 1891 he became an optician living at 88 Bury New Road Salford. In 1895 he married Helena Mindlesohn and they settled in Hull. Benn Franks Opticians had branches in that city as well as in Doncaster, Hanley and Oldham. The company was listed in several Trade Directories and advertised in the Staffordshire Sentinel in 1915. Benn Franks died in Hull in 1940.

JW Bailey (London, England)

J. W. Bailey corresponds to John William Bailey, a manufacturing optician who traded from 162 Fenchurch Street, London.

Burke & Jones (Bristol, England)

Burke & Jones were manufacturers of reproductions of antique scientific instruments based at Bristol. Not much information is available about this company, which looks to have ceased trading in the early 1980s.

C Baker (London, England)

The business of Baker was founded in London in about 1765, Charles Baker, who was born in 1820, giving his name to the company from about 1851. When Charles Baker died in 1894 the firm continued under the same name but run by the Curties family until it became, in 1936, Charles Baker & Co. and subsequently, sometime in the 1940s, C. Baker Ltd. The firm’s address mostly given as 244 High Holborn, London (but sometimes 243 and 245, sometimes in combination). The firm produced optical and surgical instruments. In 1963, Vickers acquired the C Baker Ltd microscope factory and a new company called Vickers Instruments was formed.

* Instrument kindly donated by Dave Levell (Pembrokeshire, Wales) in May 2023

C Collins (London, England)

Charles Collins produced microscopes and other optical apparatus from 1863 until the early 1900s. The census of spring, 1861, listed the 23-year-old Charles as an optician, living with his parents in Croydon, Surrey. Collins appears to have opened his independent retail shop and factory in 1863 in downtown London, located at 77 Great Titchfield Street, and joined the Quekett Microscopical Club in 1865, and the Royal Microscopical Society in 1866. Hogg’s sixth edition of The Microscope, in 1867, featured several of Charles Collins’s instruments, including a binocular student’s microscope and the Bockett lamp. Later, monocular versions of the student’s microscope were also manufactured. At the beginning of 1871, Charles moved his retail shop to Great Portland Street, about a two-minute walk from his former store. Charles Collins’s business shows signs of decline by the early 1890s. The 1911 census recorded Charles Collins as being an “optician, sight testing, spectacles”, suggesting that his business at that time had primarily been reduced to fitting eyeglasses.

Carpenter & Westley (London, England)

Philip Carpenter (1776 – 1833) was a maker of scientific instruments starting in 1808. The original location of the shop was in Birmingham but in 1926 the business moved to 24 Regent Street, London. Carpenter worked at this location until his death in 1833. After Philip's death his sister Mary took over the firm along with her husband William Westley. Soon thereafter (1835) the firm changed its name to "Carpenter & Westley". The Birmingham wing of the business was sold to in 1837 to an earlier foreman, Robert Field. The manufacture of scientific instruments gradually decreased into the1850s until finally the firm evolved entirely into sales. At that time the manufacture of instruments was done by the firm of Negretti and Zambra until Carpenter & Westley closed the shop permanently in 1914.

Casartelli (Manchester, England)

Guiseppe Luigi Casartelli (1823 – 1900) emigrated as a child from Italy to Liverpool, England, joining a relative’s scientific instrument firm business. He changed his name to Joseph Louis Casartelli and later moved to Manchester where he established himself as a manufacturer of optical equipment, trading at 43 Market Street for many years. Around 1850, Casartelli produced microscopes, telescopes and other optical devices. By the 1870s-80s, Casartelli’s business focussed on supplying the heavy industries of Manchester, including fittings for steam engines, mining equipment and optical instruments for the fabric industry. One of Casartelli’s sons, Joseph Henry, was made a partner of the company and the business became “J. Casartelli and Son” in 1896. Casartelli’s business moved to 18 Brown Street, Manchester in 1922, acquired the business of another family member in Liverpool in 1929, but was liquidated during the Great Depression in 1933. Parts of the business continued under different ownerships, including the Liverpool business as ‘J. Casartelli & Son (Liverpool)’ (later ‘Casartelli Instruments Ltd.’, in 1984, which closed in 1989), and the original business became ‘J. Casartelli & Son Ltd.’ (and then ‘John Casartelli (M/c) Ltd.’ in 1939).

* Instrument kindly donated by Frank van Wijk (Zeist, The Netherlands) in December 2024

** Instrument kindly donated by David Searle (Shoreham by Sea, England) in August 2026

Charles Perry (London, England)

Charles Perry was the foreman of Powell & Lealand, which ceased manufacturing microscopes in 1901, after which he went to work for C. Baker of High Holborn and later, around 1914, started up himself as Charles Perry (originally trading from 41, Northolme Road, Highbury, North London). Whether Charles Perry had his own factory or had instruments made to his specification by Watson is unclear.

* Instrument kindly donated by Dave Levell (Pembrokeshire, Wales) in May 2023

Cooke, Troughton & Simms (York, England)

The parent British companies of Cooke, Troughton and Simms Ltd. had a long history with John Troughton (senior) opening a business as an instrument maker in 1756. William Simms became a partner of Edward Troughton, and the name of Troughton and Simms was established in 1824. CTS was formed in York when Thomas Cooke and Sons Ltd (founded in 1837 and controlled by Vickers since 1915) purchased Troughton and Simms Ltd in 1922. The company was completely taken over by Vickers in 1924 but retained their own name. In 1963 they became part of Vickers Instruments Ltd. Cooke, Troughton and Simms Ltd. ceased trading in 1988.

* Instrument kindly donated by Dave Levell (Pembrokeshire, Wales) in May 2023

Dollond & Co (London, England)

The Dollond business started in 1750 by Peter Dollond in Spitalfields, London. He was soon joined by his father John Dollond, in 1752, and together moved to The Strand in 1759. Peter moved to St. Paul’s Churchyard in 1765 and, in 1766, Peter’s younger brother John Dollond Jr. became a partner. John Dollond Jr. died in 1804 and in the following year Peter formed a partnership with his nephew, George Huggins (who changed his name to George Dollond). Peter did not have any surviving sons and the business was passed to his nephew and business partner George Huggins Dollond in 1819. George died in 1852 and left the business to his nephew, also named George Huggins, who then changed his surname to Dollond. This second George died in 1866, leaving the business to his son, William Dollond. William sold the Dollond business in 1871 to John Chant, a former employee, and the name became ‘Dollond & Co’. By that time, the company focussed on products such as binoculars and eyeglasses and most microscopes sold appear to have been made by other manufacturers. Sometime afterward, Chant took Tyson Crawford as a partner. The partnership was dissolved in 1892 and Tyson Crawford continued the business as Dollond & Co. In 1927, the company was acquired by James Aitchison, becoming ‘Dollond and Aitchison’. Other owners followed, until the 2009 acquisition by Boots Optical. The Dollond business name ended in 2015 when the owner Boots Optical rebranded all of their Dollond and Aitchison shops as ‘Boots’.

E G Wood (London, England)

Edward George Wood (1811 – 1896) traded under the name EG Wood between 1854 and 1895, and moved to 74 Cheapside, London, in 1862. The firm EG Wood was originally formed at 117 Cheapside after Edward ended his partnership with Fallon Horne and William Henry Thornthwaite in 1854 (Horne, Thornthwaite & Wood, also makers and retailers of scientific instruments, including microscopes).

E. Lennie (Edinburgh, Scotland)

The company of James Lennie, an optician and instrument maker, was founded around 1835 in South Bridge, Edinburgh, but by 1840 it was located at 14 Leith Street. The firm traded from 14 Leith Street until 1857 when they moved to 46 Princes Street, also in Edinburgh. James died in 1854 but his widow Eliza Lennie carried on the business. Soon after James’ death, the firm traded under the name E. Lennie and was listed as optician, manufacturer of photographic apparatus, eyeglass and spectacle makers. After Eliza died in 1901, the company was still shown in the directories as E. Lennie until 1903, when the name changed to J & J Lennie. Her sons, John and Joseph, ran the business until at least 1912.The firm appears to be handed down the generations moving to 5 Castle Street in 1954, and then being incorporated by J Turnbull & Co and moving again to 56 George Street in 1959 until 1971. The firm sold a wide range of optical instruments, including telescopes and microscopes, but they did not manufacture most of their items. They are known to have sold instruments made by well-known companies such as Negretti & Zambra.

Elliott Brothers (London, England)

William Elliott founded a business in 1800 as a maker of drawing instruments. By 1807, William moved the business to High Holborn and, by 1816 the firm was manufacturing items such as telescopes and barometers. In 1850 he moved to 56 Strand, London, and took his sons Charles and Frederick William into the partnership. William Elliott died in 1853 and his sons continued the business as Elliott Bros. Between 1858 and 1863 the company’s address was 30 Strand, London, and moved to 112 St. Martin’s Lane and 449 Strand in 1864. The company began manufacturing electrical instruments in the second half of the 19th century and, in 1893, they amalgamated with Theiler & Co, telegraph and instrument makers. After a long history, the company was taken over by G.E.C in 1967 and by Fisher Controls Ltd. in 1979. In the later 1980s they were taken over by Plessey, later Siemens Plessey.

Edmund Wheeler (London, England)

Although best known for his high-quality microscope slides, Edmund Wheeler generally described himself as being a science teacher. Coincident with his lecturing, Wheeler initiated a business of producing microscopes, slides, and other optical equipment and supplies. In Wheeler’s 1880 8th List of Microscopic Objects he claimed, “twenty-five years experience in the manufacture of microscopes and microscopic objectives, aided by his son, who occupied for many years an important position in the Manufactory of Messrs. Smith and Beck”. That would give a starting date of 1855. Edmund Jr. turned 19 that year. The 1861 census described the son as a “working optician”, and evidence described below suggests that Edmund Jr. worked for Smith and Beck in that year. Wheeler had developed a serious business in optical instruments and supplies by 1863, in London, and an advertisement issued that year claimed that he had 10,000 prepared microscope slides in stock, along with various types of microscopes, objective lenses, telescopes, and binoculars. Wheeler’s 1869 microscope catalogue illustrated four “first class” and one “educational” stand, and described a dissecting stand, accessories, and a variety of implements. Wheeler claimed that his microscopes undercut others and that his “Educational Model” was the best ever produced at the price. Based on numerous historical documents, Wheeler and his assistants constructed the optical components of their microscopes and telescopes. In the autumn of 1884, dying of tuberculosis, Wheeler sold his business and moved to Brighton, to be with his only surviving child. His son, Edmund Jr., who died in 1930, set up a photography studio in Brighton in 1870 and continued in that business for 40 years.

F Davidson & Co (London, England)

F Davidson & Co were manufacturing opticians that traded from 29 Great Portland Street, London, from c. 1890 until 1922, and then from 143 Great Portland Street from 1923 until c. 1938.

F W Sturt (Tunbridge Wells, England)

Not much information was found about this company, apart they were 19th century opticians that traded from Tunbridge Wells, near London.

Field & Son (Birmingham, England)

Robert Field, Senior, was born in about 1787, in Birmingham, England, and was recorded as being an optician on all of his children’s christening records. Philip Carpenter (1776-1833) opened an optical and scientific instrument shop in about 1808 in Birmingham and his heirs sold it to Robert Field, Senior, in 1837. The business became Robert Field and Son in 1845. The 1851 census found the whole family at the New Street location. Robert Field, Sr., died in 1851 and the business was thereafter operated by Robert Field, Junior, as “R. Field and Son”. Robert Field, Jr. probably sold the business in the early 1870s and died in 1883, at the age of only 54 years old. R. Field & Son is primarily known for the prize they won from the Society of Arts in 1855. The Society of Arts, in London, requested applications for two different microscope types and Field was awarded the top prize for each. One prize was for a compound student microscope to be provided for 3 Guineas or less. The other award was for a mechanically and optically simple school microscope, to be provided for 10 shillings, 6 pence, or less. R. Field and Son also sold a compound version of the school microscope, which presumably sold for a higher price. The pattern of Field’s student prize-winning compound microscope became immensely popular and was widely copied by other manufacturers, being known as the Society of Arts pattern. In addition, the Field businesses produced more complex, expensive microscopes, and a wide variety of other scientific and mathematical instruments. 

* Instrument kindly donated by Dave Levell (Pembrokeshire, Wales) in May 2023

Flatters & Garnett (Manchester, England)

Abraham Flatters and Charles Garnett established their company in 1901 to supply microscopical equipment. The first location of the company was as a chemist shop at Manchester, displaying the microscope and lantern slides made by Flatters. In 1909, a serious rift developed between Flatters and the other directors. The Garnetts agreed to buy out his share and Flatters set up a business with some other members of the staff under the name of Flatters, Milbourne and McKechnie. Flatters & Garnett Ltd expanded its business steadily during the 1920s, increasing their range. In 1950, the company introduced the Mikrops industrial projector. This replaced the microscope for routine examination in many laboratories. Due to financial problems, the company went into liquidation in 1967.

Gillett & Sibert (London, England)

Gillett & Sibert was an English microscope manufacturer based at 417 Battersea Park Road, London (1961 – c. 1970) and at 50 Vicarage Crescent, Battersea, London during the 1970s. The company was more an assembler rather than a maker, and many of their component were made in Germany. The company practically ceased to operate by the early 1980s, but the name was later revived.

Gowllands (Croydon, England)

The firm Gowllands Ltd. (Croydon, England) was originally founded by William Gowlland, Egbert Gowlland and Charles Septimus Gowlland in 1898. The firm was named William Gowlland Ltd. in 1908 and became Gowllands Ltd in 1931. In 1998, the company was acquired by Medicamenta of the Czech Republic.

Hall Bros (London, England)

Hall and Brothers was founded in 1880 and specialised in making precision optical instruments, later becoming a principal supplier of theodolites, survey equipment and artillery sights to the British military during both World Wars. In 1938, Hall Brothers was incorporated and became known as Hall Bros. (Optical) Ltd. This became a wholly owned subsidiary of Aeronautical & General Instruments & Co. Ltd. In 1949, three sons of the founder of Hall Brothers started a company named AH Hall and Brothers Ltd., a very small operation based out of a shop premises in Islington, London, specialising in optical instruments used in construction and planning. In 1979, Hall Bros. Ltd acquires the Watts survey business from Rank Organisation. This included the now industry standardized range of Watts surveying equipment, but also the range of military instruments, which included a service and repair operation. Company names were merged to form Hall & Watts Ltd.

Hearson (London, England)

The Charles Hearson company was founded in the late 1880s and continued well into the 20th century until the 1960s, trading from 27 Mortimor Street, London. The company produced large catalogues including laboratory equipment, especially incubators, which they specialized in. They also sold microscopes, some of their own make, and many microscopes made by other companies.

Henry Crouch (London, England)

Henry Crouch learned his trade as an apprentice with Smith, Beck & Beck. Henry left his masters and formed his own company, probably in early 1862. His younger brother, William, joined him. The original H. and W. Crouch shop was located on Commercial Road, London, and their earliest instruments bear that address. The Crouch brothers initially produced copies of the microscopes that Henry had made for Smith, Beck & Beck. The partners soon focused on producing good-quality, less-expensive microscopes for the middle-class microscopists and students. Henry joined the Royal Microscopical Society in 1863, and the Quekett Microscopical Club in 1866. Advertisements as early as September 1864 indicated a move to 64A Bishopsgate Street. For several years afterwards, the Crouches retained the Commercial Road location as their factory, although not as a retail location. The Crouch brothers dissolved their partnership in 1866, with Henry retaining the optical business. Henry Crouch’s business moved ca. 1868, to London Wall, then to Barbican in early 1873. About 1886, Henry incorporated as Henry Crouch Limited. Crouch sold the business in 1907 to S. Maw, Son and Sons. Henry then worked for that firm, supervising manufacture of microscopes and other equipment. Many Crouch microscopes that already existed were additionally stamped with the new owner’s name, and newly made ones were imprinted on the foot with “S. Maw, Son and Sons”. During the early 1900s, Henry Crouch began producing microscopes with horse-shoe shaped, “continental” feet. Henry died in 1916.

Horne and Thornthwaite (London, England)

Horne, Thornthwaite & Wood, Horne & Thornthwaite, and E.G. Wood were a series of London businesses that manufactured and retailed microscopes, cameras, telescopes and other instruments from 1844 until 1911. Horne, Thornthwaite and Wood started their business in 1844 when they took over Edward Palmer’s business in 1844, and they were experts in producing optical and scientific equipment, and chemical supplies for photography and other occupations. Wood later separated from the partnership for some years. Businesses associated with Horne, Thornthwaite, and Wood operated under several names and in different locations over a period of nearly 70 years: (1) Horne, Thornthwaite & Wood (1844 – 1854), opened at 123 Newgate in 1844, occupying also 121 Newgate in 1850 and 122 Newgate in 1856; (2) Horne & Thornthwaite (1854 – 1885), after Wood left the firm in 1854, and moved from Newgate Street to 3 Holborn Viaduct at the beginning of 1874 for a short period of time, and then to 416 Strand; (3) Horne, Thornthwaite & Wood (1885 - 1893), after wood re-joined the partnership; (4) Horne & Thornthwaite (1893 – 1911), after acquisition by Ackland and the Overstall brothers in 1893. Wood traded independently from the partnership as E.G. Wood between 1854 and 1895. William Ackland became associated with Horne and Thornthwaite during the mid-1850s. Ackland was trained as a physician and became a skilled optometrist and mechanical engineer. Ackland’s association with Horne and Thornthwaite came just before the death of Fallon Horne in 1858 (the name Horne and Thornthwaite was retained, without acknowledging Ackland as an owner).

J Browning (London, England)

John Browning (1831 - 1925) was a renowned maker of optical instruments, particularly high-quality spectroscopes. After apprenticing under his father, Spencer Browning, he joined the family business and assumed sole ownership in 1856. Under John’s leadership, the company shifted its focus away from nautical instruments toward scientific and optical devices, especially spectroscopes. By 1866, Browning was operating from 1 Norfolk Street, London. In 1868, his business was located at 111 Minories, with an additional shop at 6 Vine Street. In 1872, he moved the business to 63 Strand, where it remained until around 1901. Although Watson & Sons acquired the company in 1900, Browning continued working with the firm until his retirement in 1905. Following the acquisition, the business continued to trade under the name John Browning Ltd until 1945. The company operated from 146 Strand from 1901 to at least 1914, then from 37 Southampton Street between 1922 and 1923, and 188 Strand from 1923 onward.

J Parkes & Son (Birmingham, England)

Based in Birmingham, England, Parkes produced good quality microscopes and other scientific equipment and supplies from the mid-1800s until well into the twentieth century. Recognizing the burgeoning market of students and middle-class amateurs, they focused on inexpensive instruments. James Parkes began his business in 1815 as a manufacturer of small items such as jewellery cases and other metal devices. James’ only son, Samuel, became a partner in about 1846, forming J Parkes and Son. By the 1850s, J. Parkes and Son were producing a variety of microscopes. Their 1857 catalogue prominently featured microscopes and prepared slides. Large numbers are known of later microscope models that were manufactured by J Parkes and Son but sold by other retailers. Samuel continued the business under the same name after his father’s death in 1877. Samuel had only one son, also named Samuel. That son, and a nephew, James Moulton, continued the business after the elder Samuel died in 1896. Moulton left the partnership in 1908, and Samuel T.H. Parkes continued alone for a number of additional years, at least until the late 1920s.