Zooming in on £180,000 microscope collection

THE largest single collection of microscopes ever to come to auction has been sold for almost £180,000.

Around 100 microscopes were collected by Dr Murray MacKinnon, a pharmacist from Dyce, near Aberdeen, charting more than 250 years of technological innovation in the field across the UK and also in Europe.

They went under the hammer at Bonhams Instruments of Science and Technology Sale in London, where they fetched £178,000, following interest from around the world.

Jon Baddeley of Bonhams said: ‘Dr Murray Mackinnon was the founder of MacKinnon’s of Dyce in the early 1980s, a familyowned pharmacy business which grew to become the leading independent photographic retailer in Scotland.

‘His fascination with ocular instruments is evident by this magnificent collection.’