This impressive brass telescope, 50 inches long and 20 inches tall was crafted in London, circa 1885 by one of the most celebrated Victorian instrument-makers, Horne & Thornthwaite.

The firm of Horne & Thornthwaite was founded in London in the 1840s by Fallon Horne and William Henry Thornthwaite through the purchase of Edward Palmer's instrument-making business at 103 Newgate Street. By the 1870s, Horne & Thornthwaite were the official London supplier of nautical instruments, including telescopes, to the British Admiralty. They had also published a text on the production and use of telescopes titled 'Hints on Reflecting & Refracting Telescopes' which ran through six editions and became the standard reference text on the subject.

Not simply satisfied with producing maritime instruments for the Admiralty, the firm successfully expanded into the production of scientific telescopes for British observatories and universities. Horne & Thornthwaite were also very much at the forefront of early daguerreotype photography: at the Great Exhibition of 1851, the firm was awarded a prize medal for achievements in producing photographic apparatuses.

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