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 £13,750 inc. premium
A rare Typex mark VI British Naval and RAF Enigma machine, circa 1940,
Sold for £10,625 inc. premium
A set of nine extremely erotic glass magic lantern slides, French, circa 1880,
Sold for £133,250 inc. premium
A rare George Adams armillary sphere, English, late 18th century,
Sold for £10,000 inc. premium
A rare ivory anatomical model of a pregnant woman, German or Austrian, 1770's,