A Victorian lacquered brass binocular microscope M. P. Tench, London, circa 1870 The bifurcated tube of Wenham type with rack and pinion coarse and fine micrometer screw focus adjustment above twin nosepiece objective mount and rectangular stage with X and Y screw positioning assembly, the underside with sub-stage condenser with rotating disc pierced with apertures of varying diameter and pivoted plano-concave mirror beneath, the rectangular limb hinged behind the stage between shaped plate uprights over a Y-shaped platform foot signed M. P. TENCH, 135 FLEET STREET, LONDON to the rear surface, minimum height with eyepiece lenses removed 40cm (15.75ins); in a pine box with four assorted objective lenses in canisters by various makers, four eyepiece lenses, frog plate, live box, forceps and a bullseye light condenser lens on adjustable brass stand with heavy disc foot, the box 46cm (18ins) high; with two boxes of microscope slides, the first pine containing twelve trays of six mainly professionally prepared slides of fauna and flora, 20.5cm (8ins) wide; the second card containing a smaller quantity of mainly unprepared slide panels, 21.5cm (8.5ins) wide, (3). M.P. Tench appears not to be recorded in the usual sources which would suggest that he was a retailer of instruments rather than a maker. The current lot however bears a strong resemblance to Andrew Ross’a No. 2 binocular microscope as illustrated in his 1870 catalogue hence was probably supplied by him for retail by Tench.