Quekett Spring Sale
Saturday 9th March 2024
The Quekett has taken over the Reading Convention and decided to re-name it and to restrict it to sales of microscopes and related items, with no exhibits or talks. As with last year’s Convention, the meeting was held in the Village Hall of Sonning Common, a few miles outside Reading.
Sonning Common Village Hall
Joan Bingley was selling an assortment of items including Coplin staining jars, some books and a large tripod.
Joan Bingley talking to fellow bryologist Billy Dykes
Gordon Brown had a binocular Baker polarising microscope, a stereomicroscope, an unusual Baker measuring microscope, some stages, some phase-contrast condensers, and various other items.
Gordon Brown (seated) with Rita and Trevor Batchelor and another visitor
Kelvin Law and Peter Sunderland (right)
Gordon was also buying and acquiring items for the Anglian Microscopy Group, including an old Leitz rotary microtome from Steve Gill, slides boxes and sand slides from Nigel Williams, and a Meopta portable from Alan Wood.
Douglas Downer-Smith was only selling a few items this time, including some RMS shims for making objectives parfocal, and a packet of 45 mm filters that would fit some Nikon and Olympus microscopes. He unexpectedly went home with a Leitz Dialux 20EB from Peter Wilkens.
Oleksandr Pryymak and Douglas Downer-Smith
Steve Gill had several microscopes for sale, mostly monocular black and brass or black and chrome, but including a grey binocular Olympus E. He also had a Flatters & Garnett microprojector, a couple of microtomes (including a 1900s Ernst Leitz Wetzlar Minot pattern rotary microtome) and some other items.
Steve Gill
Phil Greaves had several boxes overflowing with small items mostly for Nikon, Olympus and Zeiss microscopes, including objectives, eyepieces, condensers, lamp houses, binocular heads and illuminators, all at bargain prices. He also had some slide sets, and a Leitz Aristophot.
Phil Greaves (right)
Phil Greaves’ tables (buyers include Debbie Burfitt, Robert Ratford, Trevor Batchelor and Derek Robson (right))
Leitz Aristophot
Chris Millward brought a wide range of equipment, including a monocular Baker Patholette, a small dissecting microscope, a Vickers microscope lamp, some objectives, a couple of Coplin staining jars, fibre optic lamps and goosenecks, lots of bulbs, laboratory glassware and camera bellows.
Stephen Parker, Bevil Templeton-Smith and Robert Ratford at Chris Millward’s tables
Tony Pattinson was showing and selling copies of his “The Freshwater Microscopist” books; there are six in the series so far. They are also available from Brunel Microscopes.
Tony Pattinson (seated) and Ian Wilson
Robert Ratford was selling two monocular black and brass Watson Service microscopes, and a stereomicroscope, on behalf of the Quekett.
Colin Brooks (left) and Robert Ratford (and Stuart Bradshaw on the right)
Mark Shephard was offering an unusual Meopta G11P stereomicroscope that allows the stand and the head to be tilted, a few books, and several sets of slides, including ones by W. H. Darlaston and C. M. Topping.
Mark Shephard’s slides
Meopta stereomicroscope
Peter Wilkens has decided to give up microscopy and brought all his microscopes to sell. They included two trinocular Olympus BHS (one equipped for polarisation), a binocular Olympus BHT, a Wild inverted microscope and a trinocular Leitz Dialux 20EB. He was also selling some Olympus nosepieces, heads and illuminators, and a set of Neo brightfield-darkfield objectives with the matching nosepieces for BHA and Vanox microscopes.
Peter Wilkens
Nigel Williams was selling more items from the estate of Klaus Kemp, to raise money for his family. He was offering lots of slides of sand made by Klaus, trays of slides, a set of Brunel diatom test slides, empty slide boxes, and a dissecting microscope.
Nigel Williams (seated) and Ian Wilson
Nigel Williams, Oleksandr Pryymak and Debbie Burfitt
Alan Wood bought a bargain box of slides at Microscopium several years ago, and found lots of Biosil slides of crystals and trematodes at the bottom, with many duplicates. He has kept one of each, and was offering the rest for sale at 50 p. each. He was also selling a Meopta AZ-2 portable microscope with its dome.
Alan Wood’s slides
Meopta portable microscope
Acknowledgements
Our thanks to Tony Pattinson for organising another enjoyable day for microscopists, and to everyone who brought along items for us to buy at bargain prices.
Report and photographs by Alan Wood