A VICTORIAN LACQUERED BRASS COMPOUND BINOCULAR MICROSCOPEHENRY CROUCH, LONDON, THIRD QUARTER OF THE 19th CENTURYThe bifurcated tube assembly fitted with single objective nosepiece incorporating prism slide insert, with rack and pinion eye-piece adjustment and focus at the junction with the shaped limb, the stage with screw rotational subject positioning over substage assembly incorporating quadruple-aperture oculus selection disc, the underside with pivoted plano-concave mirror set on a double-jointed pivot, the whole raised via locking axis support on an elaborate cast brass looped base inscribed HENRY CROUCH, LONDON, 1315 to the rear, in a mahogany box with four eyepiece lenses, and three objectives signed and labelled 1/4, 2/3 and 3in to cannister lids, (damage and losses to focus mechanisms).The box 44.5cm (17.5ins) high, 25cm (9.75ins) wide, 19cm (7.5ins) deep.Henry Crouch is recorded online at www.antiquemicroscopes.co.uk as learning his trade as an apprentice with Smith, Beck & Beck before leaving to form his own company, probably in early 1862. His younger brother, William, joined him. The original H. and W. Crouch shop was located on Commercial Road, London, and their earliest instruments bear that address. The Crouch brothers initially produced copies of the microscopes that Henry had made for Smith, Beck & Beck. The partners soon focused on producing good-quality, less-expensive microscopes for the middle-class microscopists and students. Henry joined the Royal Microscopical Society in 1863, and the Quekett Microscopical Club in 1866. Advertisements as early as September 1864 indicated a move to 64A Bishopsgate Street. For several years afterwards, the Crouches retained the Commercial Road location as their factory, although not as a retail location. The Crouch brothers dissolved their partnership in 1866, with Henry retaining the optical business. Henry Crouch's business moved ca. 1868, to London Wall, then to Barbican in early 1873. About 1886, Henry incorporated as Henry Crouch Limited. Crouch sold the business in 1907 to S. Maw, Son and Sons.