7th Nov, 2017 12:00

Maritime and Scientific Models, Instruments & Art ('Fearless')

 
Lot 86
 

86

[M] AN HISTORICALLY INTERESTING MARINE TELESCOPE...

AN HISTORICALLY INTERESTING MARINE TELESCOPE BELIEVED FORMERLY OWNED BY GRAND ADMIRAL KARL DÖNITZ
with 2½in. lens numbered '274', four oxidised brass draws with threaded adjusting tube between 1 and 2, signed and inscribed around main lens housing Apochromat N2 274. Carl Zeiss, Jena, splash cuff, tapering leather-covered main tube and dust-slide, contained within fitted lined leather tube of issue with securing straps -- 13in. (33cm.) long (closed in case)

Provenance: Given to vendor in early 1950's by an R.N. Officer who recovered it from Bremerhaven at the close of WWII.

Karl Dönitz (1891-1980) succeeded Erich Raeder as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine on 30th January 1943 and quickly developed the infamous 'wolfpacks' of submarines used to persecute allied convoys. This was met with considerable initial success and allied losses rocketed until new methods of detection - aided by the breaking of naval enigma code - redressed the balance. With Hitler's suicide on April 30th 1945, Dönitz was, briefly, Chancellor of the crumbling Reich until the arrest of the Flensburg Government on 23rd May. Sentenced to ten years imprisonment for war crimes at the Nuremburg Trials, he lived quietly thereafter in a village near Hamburg until his death aged 91. Zeiss confirm that this instrument was made between 1900 and 1906 so may have been given to Dönitz when he was commissioned as an acting sub-lieutenant in 1913. The apochromatic telescope is an improvement on the standard achromatic type by using a secondary lens to align coloured light even more closely; they are generally more compact and far more expensive for the results yielded.

Sold for £1,612
Estimated at £1,000 - £1,500

(inc. buyer's premium of 24%)


 
AN HISTORICALLY INTERESTING MARINE TELESCOPE BELIEVED FORMERLY OWNED BY GRAND ADMIRAL KARL DÖNITZ
with 2½in. lens numbered '274', four oxidised brass draws with threaded adjusting tube between 1 and 2, signed and inscribed around main lens housing Apochromat N2 274. Carl Zeiss, Jena, splash cuff, tapering leather-covered main tube and dust-slide, contained within fitted lined leather tube of issue with securing straps -- 13in. (33cm.) long (closed in case)

Provenance: Given to vendor in early 1950's by an R.N. Officer who recovered it from Bremerhaven at the close of WWII.

Karl Dönitz (1891-1980) succeeded Erich Raeder as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine on 30th January 1943 and quickly developed the infamous 'wolfpacks' of submarines used to persecute allied convoys. This was met with considerable initial success and allied losses rocketed until new methods of detection - aided by the breaking of naval enigma code - redressed the balance. With Hitler's suicide on April 30th 1945, Dönitz was, briefly, Chancellor of the crumbling Reich until the arrest of the Flensburg Government on 23rd May. Sentenced to ten years imprisonment for war crimes at the Nuremburg Trials, he lived quietly thereafter in a village near Hamburg until his death aged 91. Zeiss confirm that this instrument was made between 1900 and 1906 so may have been given to Dönitz when he was commissioned as an acting sub-lieutenant in 1913. The apochromatic telescope is an improvement on the standard achromatic type by using a secondary lens to align coloured light even more closely; they are generally more compact and far more expensive for the results yielded.
File Upload

Drag and drop .jpg images here to upload, or click here to select images.