Offered for sale is a vintage pair of made-in-Glasgow Barr & Stroud ex military model no. CF42 7 x 50 binoculars in excellent condition with internal graticule, sun/spray shields and lovely original leather case.  

 

Barr & Stroud were an optical company based in Anniesland Glasgow operational from the Victorian period through to the 1980s, with the business acquired first by Pilkington, then Thales and production eventually re-located elsewhere.  The managing director of the firm from the early 1900s to around 1928 was a Mr Harold Drinkwater-Jackson, who we have a kind of personal connection with, because he built the house on the outskirts of Glasgow where we currently live.  I’ve therefore collected some Barr & Stroud instruments over the years and occasionally sell some of the items from my collection, such as this example of the Barr & Stroud CF42 military model.

 

Barr & Stroud originally manufactured military optical instruments such as rangefinders, with their product range quickly extending to include various other optical items – marine periscopes, fire control systems, telescopes and from about 1919 they also made binoculars.  The firm won contracts with the Admiralty and therefore supplied many instruments during WWII, perhaps the best known being their CF41 model of binoculars with interchangeable internal filters that were widely used by the Royal Navy and Coastal Defence forces during WWII and right up until the 1980s, so some pairs may have seen service during the Falklands conflict.

 

This CF42 example has an internal cross-hair graticule in the right-hand eyepiece with the sought-after sun/spray shields which retract when not in use.  The magnification is 7x with 50mm objectives and this example will date to teh WWII period and as is quite often the case with Barr & Stroud instruments the broad arrow markikings to the main tubes have been painted out at some point in the past.  

 

This pair is in generaslly good condition, with reasonably clear optics for age, smooth eyepiece focusing, working filters, collimation is acceptable with just a little shadowing at the periphery of teh visual field, which doesn’t impair use and just a little internal dust.  The exterior anti-slip coating to both optical barrels looks to be in good condition with no signs of delamination.  Overall, a great example of a quitehard-to-find military model of binoculars sporting the famous Barr & Stroud brand – likely to have originally been Navy or Coastal Defence.  It also comes with a leather neck strap and one-piece leather eyepiece guard.  

 

By operating the twin rotating filter controls you have a viewing choice as under:

 

– Start position – clear for viewing in normal conditions
– 1st position – yellow filter – to enhance contrast in hazy conditions
– 2nd position – neutral density filter – reduces glare in bright sunlight akin to wearing sunglasses
– 3rd position – green filter – reduces glare from water surface in very bright conditions, thereby allowing objects to be seen more easily and also used for nighttime reconnaisance in order to help preserve night-vision effectiveness

 

The different filters were used essentially to assist with naval reconnaisance in order to improve visibility in low light, hazy or bright sunlit conditions – all especially important for marine applications – and spotting things like periscopes sticking out of the water!

 

You might think that 7x magnification is a bit low for military/naval applications, but try using binoculars onboard a ship, with the ship’s motion likely to blurr the view for high magnification optics.  Therefore 7x magnification as pretty universally adopted for naval applications.  German manufacturers Leitz and Zeiss also produced marine binoculars at 7x magnifiction for Kreigsmarine and U-Boat applications.

 

Interestingly, King Charles as then Prince of Wales, when he was in the Royal Navy back in the 1970s commanding HMS Bronington, used a pair of Barr & Stroud binoculars – see image in listing photos.

 

Note 2:  currently available brand new Barr & Stroud optical instruments are nothing to do and have no connection with the original Glasgow-based British company.

 

Shipping by Royal Mail.

 

Thanks for looking.