Charles Stone's - John Browning Eyepiece - Greenwich, CT, USA
Acquisition
My two great grandfathers on my grandmother's side , (Henrietta Bates Brooke, 2d Pres' of The Girl Scouts of Am. In 1937), were both were from Washington, DC.: Gen. A.E. Bates, her father, and her first husband's family, the McKee's. Both built summer houses about 1890 in a small resort on Buzzard's Bay near New Bedford, Mass. called Nonquitt. This scope came from one of these two houses, probably the former.
I have included a copy of Gen. Bates' obit as a pdf. Hopefully. You will be able to read it---He was a close friend of Teddy Roosevelt and was sent to England on a diplomatic mission to promote good will about the time of the Spanish American War. This is also the time of John Browning. The scope was probably used on the General's front porch to look out over Buzzard's Bay at the passing ships and the last of the whalers going out from New Bedford. - and also possibly as a celestial scope.
I spent every summer at Nonquitt with my grandmother from 1929 - to 1952 when I graduated from Yale in her second husband's adjoining house: Fred Brooke, architect of the British embassy in DC. I first remember as a teenager finding it at the Gen. Bates cottage. I recall putting it together and trying to assess what the various lenses were supposed to do. They all seem to be related and do fit together, except for the small diameter Browning labeled part. The scope provided wonderful magnification of boats from a long way off.
My Grandmother has a fascinating memoir re her life and travels all over the world, but no mention of the scope.
Status
I also have a second smaller brass scope now locked away in my Nonquitt summer home that may also be of interest.
Unfortunately, none of my antecedents are alive could help re this matter. I have a lot of documentation re Gen. Bates that I will continue to look through, but I am sure that a graduate of West Point would have been knowledgeable about and interested in celestial matters.
Finally, if my telescope has any appreciable value, I would be glad to sell it to any one or institution who might be interested. If you or any other of your colleagues would like to come to Greenwich to take a look, I would be glad to oblige. If any additional photos would help, please advise.
Charles Stone
Greenwich, CT, USA
Editors Note: The companion telescope that partners the John Browning eyepiece is still being researched, and is in excellent condition in the Charles Stone collection, in Greenwich, CT, USA.
The eyepiece was sold to Ken Launie, Cambridge, Mass, USA in June, 2009.
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