Scientific Instruments

The Bonhams Scientific Instruments department holds dedicated auctions twice a year, as well as offering property within the Gentleman's Library sale.

We offer instruments and apparatus from the earliest known historical artefacts to items from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Our sales contain microscopes, telescopes, surveying and navigational instruments, globes, sundials, astrolabes, calculators, drawing instruments, barometers and barographs, medical and dental instruments.

Highlights from past auctions

Sold for £16,250 inc. premium
A large George Adams brass compound monocular microscope, English, late 18th century,
Sold for £97,250 inc. premium
A fine pair of J & W Cary 18-inch terrestrial and celestial globes, English, circa 1835, (2)
Sold for £133,250 inc. premium
A rare George Adams armillary sphere, English, late 18th century,
Sold for £10,625 inc. premium
A fine Nicholas Lane 2 3/4-inch pocket globe, English, published 1779,