Lot 350: The Porter Garden Telescope

The Porter Garden Telescope, by Telescopes of Vermont, a limited edition authorized exact reproduction of Russel W. Porter’s 1923 telescope, made by The Telescopes of Vermont, cast in bronze, the reflecting telescope was adorned with sculpted lotus petals and curving leaves, optics disguised in overlapping bronze leaves, while the motion controls were hidden in a pair of cylindrical flowers, currently there are only 20 in the world, height 68 inches, width 17 inches, diameter 17 inches.
Side Note: Vermont artist, Arctic explorer and amateur astronomer Russell W. Porter, created an Art Nouveau style telescope intended to serve as both garden ornament and functional scientific instrument, Porter created fewer than 100 of his garden telescopes, according to the Smithsonian, which holds one of these devices in its collection at the National Museum of American History, the rarity of these telescopes was partly due to their cost of around $500, beyond the means of most Jazz Age stargazers, Russell W. Porter’s telescope would be a model for the design of the 200 inch Hale telescope in San Diego, Russel Porter was the father of amateur astronomy in the United States, the founder of the Springfield Telescope Makers, an Arctic explorer and navigator, a painter of exquisite Inuit portraits, and an instructor of architecture at MIT, when British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore saw the telescope, he dubbed her “Capella”, after one of the brightest stars always visible in the Northern hemisphere.
Provenance: A Private Connecticut Shoreline Collection

Estimate: $20000- $40000

Auction Date: May 6, 2023

Realized Price: $25000