Solid Brass Victorian-era Field Glasses, made by Mohrson of France.

Picked these up today for a jolly good price. And got a discount on top, to boot! Not a large discount, but any discount is good!

These are a pair of *STUNNING* solid brass French-manufactured field-glasses, probably from the last quarter of the 1800s.

They are absolutely flawless in condition. A bit of grime is easily rubbed off. The lenses were easily unscrewed, wiped clean, polished, and replaced and any loose components were just as easily unscrewed, cleaned, replaced, and tightened to eliminate rattling.













The only real issue that I encountered was the deterioration of the felt lining inside the glare-shields.

The felt rings inside the shields allow them to slide smoothly in and out, but they also provide the necessary friction to stop them sliding and dropping and rattling around when you need them to remain still. Unfortunately, after 100+ years, they were badly disintegrating.

It was a simple matter of disassembling the binoculars, pulling apart the shields, tearing off the old felt (which was peeling off anyway) - cutting new strips of felt and gluing them inside - and then reassembling the whole thing. All done in less than 10 minutes.

And the result? A fully functional pair of, admittedly, quite powerful binoculars! With brand new felt liners and a polished body, the glare shields now slide and hold as they did when they themselves were new!

The only thing missing is the original strap (you can see the loops in the brass where the strap would've attached) - I don't think I will bother to replace that. I like them without the strap better

 

May they bring you years of exciting views!

 

THey have lost the leather covering around the glare shields. That lined appearence is typical where the metal was to be glued and covered with material.

 

I still can't believe all the cool stuff you find.

 

Hi AF,

I wondered about the inconsistent spacing of the lines. Are you sure about the leather, though?

I mean I have seen these with leather, but I've also seen them without leather (and I have seen a few with leather on the main body, and none on the glare-shields).

The reason I bought them was because all the main surfaces were brass, which is something I like the look of.

...that, and while I've seen a lot of these (at flea-markets, and there's at least three of them at local antiques shops), this is the first pair that worked properly!! All the others jam when you try and focus them...

 

Mine all have leather or something on them, but I kind of like the streamlined, Steampunk look.

 

Original finish is usually black laquer or leather. I am sure about the engraved lines as a key forthe adhesive. In general, no one using binoculars wants them flashing in the sun. Fancy may do for ladies at the opera, but even for a trip to the races it would be considered infra dig.

 

Call them Steampunk and they'll fly away.

 

Hi AF,

Yes I get your point. I have seen MANY with black lacquer, so it surprised me when these didn't have any. I wondered about the leather coverings, purely because the glare shields on this are SO clean. There was no grime or glue-residue or anything on them to suggest that they once had a covering of some sort.

I assume that you are probably correct, though, and that these likely had leather, that the leather rotted and dried and fell off, and that the seller polished the brass to clean it up, rather than put on new leather.

 

Clean brass or patchy lacquer? Many seller will polish anything rather than leave it alone.

 

LOL. Yes I suppose so.