Signature:
Carochez Opticien de Monsieur Cotte de l'hotel de Villa a paris
Signature Notes:
Inscriptions:
No stand present.
Collection:
Louwman Collection of Historic Telescopes
Accession #:
LC 59
Sources:
Louwman, P.J.K., and Zuidervaart, H.J., "A Certain Instrument to See Far: Four Centuries of Styling the Telescope Illustrated by a Selection of Treasures from the Louwman Collection of Historic Telescopes". Wassenaar, 2009. p.78. #63.
Louwman, P.J.K., and Zuidervaart, H.J., "A Certain Instrument for Seeing Far: Four Centuries of Styling the Telescope Illustrated by a Selection of Treasures from the Louwman Collection of Historic Telescopes". Wassenaar, 2013. p.84. #59.
Public Notes:
"French telescope made of rosewood. Five drawtubes with brass fittings. The main tube has a protective cap. Compound erecting eyepiece with four lenses. Length 40-97 cm, Ø 6 cm. Signed: ‘Carochez Opticien de Monsieur Côtte de l’hôtel the Ville à Paris’. Made about 1795.
Noël-Simon Carochez (ca. 1740-1813) was operational as an instrument maker in Paris during the years 1767-1813. He received his education as apprentice at the instrument makers P. Vallée (1759) and Berin de la Croix (1761). In 1769 he composed an inventory of the estate of the famous instrument maker Claude Siméon Passemant, ‘Ingénieur du Roi’. Carochez followed Passemant in this profession, becoming ‘Ingénieur du Roi’ himself. On this telescope he called himself Opticien de Monsieur Côtte, meaning that this instrument was made in the republican years after the abolition of the monarchy in 1792. Louis Cotte (1740-1815) had been the founder and secretary of the Société Royale de la Médicine(1776-1793), the first medical-meteorological society in Europe. In the revolutionary era Carochez became the main instrument maker for the Bureau des Longitudes. This scientific institution was founded in 1795 and charged with the improvement of navigation, standardisation of time-keeping, geodesy and astronomical observation.Earlier, in 1785, Carochez had made the famous platinum mirrors for the reflecting telescopes according to the design of the optician Alexis Marie Rochon (1741-1817)" (Louwman and Zuidervaart, 2013).
Dioptrice is made possible by the generous
support of the National Science Foundation, the National
Endowment for the Humanities, the Program in the History and
Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame, and the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum.
