This is a metal instrument (probably brass) covered with orange celluloid speckled with small metal stars. The cross-hatching on the surface, visible through the celluloid, was probably produced by a method known as engine turning. The objective lenses are 35 mm in diameter. The length is 6.3 cm closed. The barrels are flared. One eye tube is marked “L’Ingenieur / Strope / Optician” and the other “Bréveté / 24 Palais Royal / Paris.”
G. Strope was active in the 1870s, enjoyed a high-end location in Paris, and advertised his wares in books written for foreign tourists.
This example came to the Smithsonian in 1922, in the large bequest of Cassie Mason Myers Julian James.
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