3 Inch Bardou Floor Standing Telescope

3 inch floor standing tripod telescope, attributed to Bardou Paris, circa 1880.  The telescope has a 42 1/4 inch brass barrel.  It has rack and pinion focusing and a side mounted spotting scope.  The telescope is mounted on a beautifully turned brass mount attached to the top of a brass tube.  The brass tube cranks up and down with a worm gear drive to adjust for the viewers height.  There is a rack and pinion brass side strut mounted on the opposite side of the spotting scope which allows for fine adjustment for vertical movement. This is the only crank-up Bardou style telescope, we have examined, that has the useful and decorative features. The tripod is a fancy pierced Bardou style which has three mahogany stretchers which support a mahogany circular platform which supports the crank mechanism.  The telescope retains its original brass through bolts with end wing nuts.  The legs have applied brass plates on the front of each leg which are cut-out to conform to the pierced design in the legs.  The back of the legs have applied circular brass disks. (I-628)