Large Victorian 4in Telescope & Stand with Provenance

English/French, c.1879, signed to the body tube 'DOCTEUR Arthur CHAVALIER, Opticien Officer d Acudinire, 158 PALAIS – ROYAL 158, PARIS', and to the lens cap 'George Cecil Ives, November 1879', also the inside of the eyepiece mount is engraved 'J.B. 30 November 76', the telescope tube ( 142cm long) with rack and pinion focusing, star finder and lens cap, on substantial French polished mahogany & brass stand with large brass gearing to height adjustment, telescope with three eyepieces and filters, in large stained pine travel case, case length 151cm.

George Cecil Ives (1 October 1867 in Germany – 4 June 1950) was an English poet, writer, penal reformer and early homosexual law reform campaigner. He founded the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology. In 1931, the organisation became the British Sexological Society. Ives was the archivist for the Society whose papers are now held by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Ives met Oscar Wilde at the Authors' Club in London in 1892. Ives was already working for the end of the oppression of homosexuals, what he called "the Cause." He hoped that Wilde would join "the Cause", but was disappointed. He died in London but was buried in the village of Bentworth, Hampshire