Historic Telescopes
Every 1st Friday of the month
The Netherlands has gained an international top collection: the Louwman Collection of Historic Telescopes. The collection, featuring highlights such as a lens by Christiaan Huygens from 1656 and the elegant opera glass of Marie Antoinette from the 18th century, is the result of half a century of passionate collecting by astronomer P.J.K. Louwman. The exceptionally extensive collection of telescopes and binoculars is unmatched worldwide and can now be viewed at the Louwman Museum. Over a period of more than fifty years, Louwman collected several hundred historic binoculars, from very small to extremely large. As varied as the uses of the telescopes are, so rich is the diversity of the permanent exhibition.
Huygens found in a little box in Rome
For Louwman, bringing things together was a passion, he readily admits. Vacations were even secondary to my searches. On a search in Rome, in a back alley, we made our greatest discovery in a little shop full of old glasses. In a small box of old lenses we found an original lens by Huygens, ground and signed by his own hand.
Sequence of masterpieces
Although the collection is a succession of masterpieces, Marie Antoinette's personal opera glasses and Patroni's binocular telescope from 1719 undoubtedly attract a great deal of attention. The former is like a piece of jewelry: beautifully decorated, handy, made of porcelain, silver and darkened ivory.
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