Artist/Maker: William Jones (1763-1831) and Samuel Jones
Created: c. 1807
Origin/Purchase: London
Materials: glass, with walnut frame
Dimensions: D: 30.5 (12 in.); 33.7 (13 1/4 in.) with frame
Location: Cabinet
Provenance: Thomas Jefferson; by purchase to George Toole at the Dispersal Sale in 1827; by descent to Mrs. John Toole; by purchase to Henry Polkinhorn; by gift to William Wilson Corcoran; by purchase to an unidentified Washington dealer; by purchase to Mr. and Mrs. Parry Borgstrom; by gift of Ruth D. Borgstrom to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in 1961
Accession Number: 1961-15
Historical Notes: In 1806 Jefferson ordered from the London firm W. & S. Jones "a 12. Inch Concave glass mirror in a plain black frame" costing £2-5.[1] He had acquired a larger concave mirror in a more elaborate frame while living in France in the 1780s, for which this was probably a replacement.[2]
Jefferson intended using his concave mirrors, as well as the condensing lenses and scioptric ball he bought in London in 1786, with his microscopes.[3] As he wrote in 1822, "in microscopic observations, the enlargement of the angle of vision may be more indulged, because auxiliary light may be concentrated on the object by concave mirrors."[4] The reflecting mirror of a compound microscope would be placed at the focal point of the mirrors.
When a viewer stands outside the focal point of a concave mirror, his image is reflected upside down. This optical phenomenon may account for the mirror's location in the Entrance Hall in an inventory prepared shortly after Jefferson's death.[5] It might have become a source of family entertainment in Jefferson's last years, when he had abandoned more complex scientific experiments.
- Text from Stein, Worlds, 359
ADDRESS:
931 Thomas Jefferson Parkway
Charlottesville, VA 22902
GENERAL INFORMATION:
(434) 984-9800