Quekett Spring Sale
Saturday 8th March 2025
This was the third sales meeting (now called the Quekett Spring Sale) to be held in the Village Hall of Sonning Common, a few miles outside Reading. As usual, there were lots of bargains and interesting items for sale, most of which had been sold by lunchtime. To try to encourage members to attend, the Annual General Meeting was held in the afternoon.
Sonning Common Village Hall
General view
Gordon Brown had a variety of items for sale, including a binocular Reichert Zetopan, a binocular Watson Bactil, a Watson Service, a Beck 47, a CTS, a Zeiss Jena pancratic condenser and some books.
Gordon Brown’s sales table (James Rider on left)
Richard Courtiour is well-known to Quekett members for the slides that he sells on eBay as richieathome, but this was his first time at a Quekett sales event. He was offering lots of slides (some in cabinets), old objectives and eyepieces, objective canisters, coverslips and various other items.
Richard Courtiour (left) and George Courtiour
Some of Richard Courtiour’s objectives and eyepieces
Objectives in canisters
Slide cabinet
Miscellaneous items
Phil Greaves had lots of wooden slide boxes (full of slides of waterflea legs), a Watson Microsystem 70 equipped for phase contrast, a portable Lomo Biolam in its metal case, a Watson Stereo Zoom, a binocular Zeiss GF with wooden box, an Olympus PM-6 microscope camera, Olympus EMM-7 and Gossen Microsix exposure meters, some Zeiss photo tubes, and a big Leitz stage. He didn’t have as many small items as usual, but he did have some Zeiss eyepieces starting from £1.
Phil Greaves, Stephen Parker, Peter Sunderland and
Zeiss camera adapters
Pam Hamer was selling an Olympus PM-6 microscope camera, a Bausch & Lomb Duboscq colorimeter, some blank slides, and bottles of reference liquids.
Chris Kennedy and Pam Hamer
Olympus PM-6 microscope camera
Terry Hope was offering a Meopta AZ-2 portable microscope (complete with dome) free to a good home, and was selling a binocular Wild M20 equipped for phase contrast, a monocular Lomo Р11 with wooden case, and a Swift polarising microscope.
Peter Sunderland and Terry Hope (right)
Chris Millward had his usual wide range of items, including a monocular Baker Biolux, a binocular Baker with wooden box, a monocular Cooke, Troughton & Simms, a compact dissecting microscope, a fibre optic unit, a large microscope lamp, an analogue video camera, parts of photographic enlargers, and some laboratory equipment.
Chris Millward’s sales table (Chris on the right)
Chris Millward’s sales table
Laboratory equipment
Stephen Parker was selling a Nikon E200, an Open University polarising microscope, a Reichert condenser, and a Zeiss Jena interference contrast set for incident light.
Stephen Parker’s sales table
Nigel Parkinson had some books, a tray of eyepieces and other small items, and was showing an incomplete wool fibre comparator.
Gordon Brown and Nigel Parkinson
Miscellaneous items from Nigel Parkinson
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)
Mike Samworth had tables overflowing with microscopes, accessories, books, brochures and slides. The microscopes included a Nikon Alphaphot 2, a brass Leitz, a heavy Lomo МБУ portable with its domed case, and most of an Olympus CK inverted. Accessories included Nikon condensers and microscope camera, Lomo incident light attachment and drawing tube, a Watson shearing eyepiece, a T-mount microscope adapter and lots of eyepieces. Mike was selling lots of slides, including Biosil ones, for 50p each.
Sam Medworth, Mike Samworth, Tony Pattinson and Terry Hope
Browsers at Mike Samworth’s sales table
Some of Mike Samworth’s microscopes
Lomo PA-6 drawing attachment, etcetera
Some of Mike Samworth’s slides
Alan Wood had some Olympus nosepieces, objectives and adapters, a Zeiss oil-immersion objective, two Leitz Periplan eyepieces with 28mm thread, and some other small items. He also had some Biosil slides that he gave away rather than take them home again.
Alan Wood’s sales table
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