Antique retractable pencil in acorn case with stanhope of Minehead, Dunster & Selworthy

This stanhope* is mounted onto the end of a small propelling pencil. The body of the case is made from an acorn with a metal surround.  When the end is rotated the pencil retracts.  There is a ring at the end. The stanhope shows “A Memory of Minehead and Dunster” with six views of the area including the village of Selworthy.  It is labelled “McKee Dublin and “made in France”.  Everything is in very good condition; the stanhope is very clear and all of the image is visible.  Only the pencil lead needs to be replaced.

I have a large collection of stanhopes which I am selling on ebay.  If you are already a stanhope collector, I hope to have some of interest to you; if you are new to stanhopes I would encourage you to consider these fascinating microphotographs  as worthy of adding to your collecting interests:  they are interesting, attractive and come in a enormous diversity of forms. Most are small enough to display without taking up too much space.  

In most cases I have taken a microscopic view of the actual photographic image.  If the image that the viewer sees differs significantly due to dust or poor alignment, I note this in my description.

Postage and packaging.  All purchases will  be sent promptly and carefully packed. 

If you buy more than one stanhope and wish to take advantage of combined postage please be aware that with eBay’s Simple Delivery, invoices are generated and modified by them, not me I’m afraid. It is advisable to pay for the items at the same time, preferably from a combined invoice.

*Stanhopes (or peeps) are microphotographic viewers. They were small enough to enable them to be mounted inside a variety of objects. They use a tiny lens which acts like a miniature microscope in being able to greatly magnify very small images.  This technology was first combined with microphotography, enabling microphotographic images to be seen,  by Dagron in France in the 1860s. (His early stanhopes are much sought after.)  Each stanhope consists of a cylinder of glass only about a millimetre thick and just a few millimetres in length.    When you look into it, a perfectly detailed image is revealed.