In the sale of second-hand telescopes only one man is now engaged
in any extensive way, except on mere chance occasions. Fourteen or
fifteen years ago, I was informed, there was a considerable street sale
in small telescopes at 1_s._ each. They were made at Birmingham, my
informant believed, but were sold as second-hand goods in London. Of
this trade there is now no remains.
The principal seller of second-hand telescopes takes a stand on Tower
Hill or by the Coal Exchange, and his customers, as he sells excellent
“glasses,” are mostly sea-faring men. He has sold, and still sells,
telescopes from 2_l._ 10_s._ to 5_l._ each, the purchasers generally
“trying” them, with strict examination, from Tower Hill, or on the
Custom-House Quay. There are, in addition to this street-seller, six
and sometimes eight others, who offer telescopes to persons about the
docks or wharfs, who may be going some voyage. These are as often new
as second-hand, but the second-hand articles are preferred. This,
however, is a Jewish trade which will be treated of under another head.
An old opera-glass, or the smaller articles best known as
“pocket-glasses,” are occasionally hawked to public-houses and offered
in the streets, but so little is done in them that I can obtain no
statistics. A spectacle seller told me that he had once tried to sell
two second-hand opera-glasses at 2_s._ 6_d._ each, in the street, and
then in the public-houses, but was laughed at by the people who were
usually his customers. “Opera-glasses!” they said, “why, what did they
want with opera-glasses? wait until they had opera-boxes.” He sold the
glasses at last to a shopkeeper.