Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

 

      

Microscope 248 (Nachet; Microscope nouveau modéle inclinant; c. 1880)

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Camille Sébastien Nachet (1799 – 1881) started by working with Charles Chevalier and set up his own business in 1839. At that time, Chevalier, Oberhauser and Nachet were the main producers of microscopes in Paris. In the late 1850s, Nachet was joined by his son, Jean Alfred Nachet (1831-1908), who went by the name of Alfred. The firm was renamed Nachet et Fils around 1862, when Alfred was made a partner. Nachet was succeeded by his son, who named the firm ‘A Nachet’ from about 1880 to about 1890, when it became ‘Nachet et Fils’ once more when Alfred's son joined the partnership. By 1898 Nachet had taken over Hartnack and Prazmowski and also ‘Bezu, Hausser et cie’. The firm traded from Rue Serpente, Paris (1839 – 1862), Rue Séverin, Paris (1862 until after WW2), and Rue Chaptal 106, Levallois-Perret (1970s). Microscope 248 is engraved with ‘Nachet et Fills, 17 Rue St Séverin, Paris’ and should be dated to c. 1880. This microscope should be a version of Nachet’s “Microscope nouveau modéle inclinant” (Figure 1). The instrument came with its original wooden box.

Figure 1. Nachet’s “Microscope nouveau modéle inclinant” as pictured in the firm’s catalogues of 1872 (left) and 1886 (right).

 

References

Nachet medium new-model compound microscope (http://waywiser.fas.harvard.edu/objects/3018/nachet-medium-newmodel-compound-microscope;jsessionid=240914E20BA6365C4E2A04CD82CFD6A0?ctx=21f1cee2-b440-4b31-9a87-95a6fe6cc1d9&idx=24), last accessed on 12.03.2022

 

LAST EDITED: 12.03.2022