Johannes Jacobus Zaalberg van Zelst, 1827 - 1903

by Brian Stevenson
last updated February, 2025

J.J. Zaalberg van Zelst operated a scientific instrument business in Amsterdam, Netherlands during the mid- to late-1800s. While he produced microscopes that won awards for the quality of his craftsmanship, competition with other manufacturers led him to shift his focus to other optical apparatus, such as magic lanterns, and on novelty microphotograph slides. Zaalberg van Zelst’s microscopes and other apparatus are relatively scarce – I found records of only four, three at the Boerhaave Museum in Leiden and one at Utrecht University.

His microphotographs are uncommon, but do occasionally show up at auctions. The miniaturization is to a lesser extent than those of English or French microphotographers of the time, such that a 3 to 5x objective lens is adequate to view details. Figure 1 shows all of the Zaalberg van Zelst microphotograph slides that are known to me. If any readers know of other examples, we would be pleased to share them on this page.

Figure 1. Microphotograph slides by J.J. Zaalberg van Zelst. From the author’s or other contributors' collections, or adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from the Boerhaave Museum web site or internet auction sites.

Figure 2. Zaalberg van Zelst also produced microscope slides of a wide variety of biological objects, such as this flea. Adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from an internet auction site.

Figure 3. Microscope by J.J. Zaalberg van Zelst, currently in the Boerhaave Museum. He exhibited a “Microscope grand modèle” at the 1867 Paris Exposition, and won a Gold Medal at an 1865 exposition in Leiden for an instrument whose description resembles this. Adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from mmb-web.adlibhosting.com/Details/collect/9415

Figure 4. Microscope by J.J. Zaalberg van Zelst, in the Boerhaave Museum. Adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from mmb-web.adlibhosting.com/Details/collect/9611

Figure 5. A small microscope by J.J. Zaalberg van Zelst, in the Boerhaave Museum. Adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from mmb-web.adlibhosting.com/Details/collect/14582

Figure 6. A microscope that was manufactured by Louis-François Dellebarre (1726–1805), then modified by Zaalberg van Zelst in 1879. A label on the inside edge of the case reads, “Lens between 1 and 2 can be used in any way … ground by Zaalberg v Zelst 1879” (translated). Adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from the Boerhaave Museum, https://mmb-web.adlibhosting.com/Details/collect/9810

Johannes Jacobus Zaalberg van Zelst was born on May 10, 1827 in Leige (now Belgium), son of Gijsbert Zaalberg van Zelst and Jannetje Casteelen.

As a teenager, he moved to Leiden, Netherlands to study manufacturing scientific instrument building with Syds Rienks (1770-1845), a noted maker of reflecting microscopes and telescopes. Zaalberg van Zelst completed his apprenticeship with Syds’ son, Biense Rienks (1830-1891).

Zaalberg van Zelst evidently moved to Amsterdam ca. 1848 to open his own instrument-building business. He would then have been around 20 years old, appropriate for having served a 5-6 year apprenticeship. He married Cornelia Henrietta Craner there on June 14, 1848. Their first child was born in Amsterdam on March 7, 1849, and all of their other children were also born in that city. An 1851-52 census recorded Zaalberg van Zelst, “instrumentmaker”, living with is family at 15 Leidsedwarsstraat Korte, Amsterdam. Of note, Marian Fournier, in Early Microscopes: A Descriptive Catalogue, wrote that Zaalberg van Zelst set up his Amsterdam shop “in the 1860s”, which those government records show to be off.

Jacobus and Cornelia had five children: three sons and two daughters. They divorced in January, 1871. He remarried, to Louise Zaalberg, two weeks later, on February 1, 1871. Jacobus and Louise had one child, a son.

He won a Gold Medal for his microscopes at the 1865, Leiden exhibition of the Dutch Society for the Promotion of Industry. The jury was especially impressed that Zaalberg van Zelst had made the microscope lenses himself. A microscope in the Utrecht University Museum holds this, or a similar microscope, which is engraved “Gouden medaille, Leiden 1865”. I have not located a photograph, but a catalogue of the museum describes it as, “The stand is connected to the foot by a joint and carries, under the stage, the illuminating mirror, a condensing lens, a piece of blue glass and a continuously variable diaphragm ... The condenser is fitted with a diaphragm for darkground illumination and both condenser and blue glass can be turned out of the optical axis. On the stage a movable slide serves to place the object glasses against it. The coarse focussing is done by hand, the fine one by means of a screw. Another illuminating lens of dark blue glass is attached to the microscope. Accompanying the instrument is a small case made in imitation of a miniature prayer-book and containing four objectives and three eye-pieces. The objectives are numbered 0, 1, 3, and 5”. This appears to be similar to the large microscope shown above in Figure 3.

Zaalberg van Zelst exhibited “Photographie-Toestel” (Photography equipment) at an 1866 exposition in Amsterdam.

He entered the 1867 Paris International Exposition, showing a “Microscope grand modèle”. This model may be that shown in Figure 3. About that exhibition, Mordecai C. Cooke (1825-1914) wrote dismissively about Zaalberg van Zelst and other makers with whom he was unfamiliar, “The Exhibition catalogue contains, amongst other things which are scarcely possible to find, an intimation that microscopes are exhibited by N.E. Evrard, A.N. Lebrun, J.N. Wentzel, and A. Mirand, of Paris; by J.J. Van Zelst Zaalberg, of Amsterdam; F.A. Nobert, of Barth; S. Merz, of Munich; J. Cavalleri, of Milan; as well as microscopical preparations by J. Nacovich, of Padua, P. Marchi, of Florence, and E. Oehl, of Pavia. Time will, perhaps, reveal all”.

While Cooke, as an Englishman, can understandably have been unaware of the smaller microscope manufacturers of continental Europe, his comments reflect a major difficulty of the field. Zaalberg van Zelst was in competition with big businesses such as Zeiss, Oberhaeuser, Baker, and others. Marian Fournier, in Early Microscopes: A Descriptive Catalogue, wrote, "In the 1860s … the competition from instrument factories abroad was so fierce that Zaalberg decided to turn to the manufacture of toy optical apparatus”. This would include items such as magic lanterns and opera glasses (Figures and 8), as well as novelties such as microphotographs. He was certainly producing microphotograph slides by the 1870s, as an 1876 auction catalogue listed “zwaalf microphotogrammen” (twelve microphotographs) by Zaalberg van Zelst.

Zaalberg van Zelst showed a “Microscoop à bascule (klein model)” at a horticultural exhibition in 1877. To the best of my knowledge this translates as “rocking/see-saw microscope (small model)”. It is unclear what this could be as a microscope, but perhaps it was actually a rocking microtome?

The last specific reference that I found about Zaalberg van Zelst’s optical work is a note about modification work that he performed on a ca. 1800 Delebarre microscope (Figure 6). The cabinet of that microscope includes a label that reads, “Lensje tussen 1 en 2 zoo wat te gebruiken … geslepen door Zaalberg v Zelst 1879” (“Lens between 1 and 2 can be used in any way … cut by Zaalberg v Zelst 1879”).

Later in life, Zaalberg van Zelst moved to The Hague. He died there, on July 1, 1903.

Figure 7. Magic lantern slide projector by J.J. Zaalberg van Zelst. Adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from https://www.luikerwaal.com/newframe_nl.htm?/merk_diveur1_nl.htm

Figure 8. Binocular opera glasses by Zaalberg van Zelst. The case is stamped with his name and “Gouden medaille Leiden 1865”. Adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from an internet auction site.

Acknowledgement

Thank you to Richard Courtiour for generously providing images and insights to this and other microscopist.net essays.

Resources

H.G. Bom, Amsterdam, sales catalogue (1876) “Twaalf microphotogrammen door J.J. Zaalberg van Velst, in cart. Doos”, page 196

H.G. Bom, Amsterdam, sales catalogue (1885) “Een (uitmuntend microscoop), door J. J. Zaalberg van Zelst te Amsterdam, met 4 objectieven en 2 oculairen, in mah. h. kist.”, page 92

Bracegirdle, Brian (1998) Microscopical Mounts and Mounters, Quekett Microscopical Club, London, page 104

Boerhaave Museum / Rijksmuseum Boerhaave search site, https://mmb-web.adlibhosting.com/search/simple

Catalogue General Publie par la Commission Imperial (1867) “Zaalberg van Zelst (J.-J.), à Amsterdam. - Microscope grand modèle”, page 69

Catalogus der Algemeene Tentoonstelling van Nederlandsche Nijverheid en Kunst, Volume 1 (1866) “J.J. Zaalberg van Zelst, Amsterdam. Photographie-Toestel”, page 87

van Cittert, P.H. J.C. Deiman (1934 / 2012) Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Microscopes in Charge of the Utrecht University Museum, pages 104-105, accessed through https://archive.org/details/VanCittert1934MicroscopeCatalogue/page/n103/mode/2up?q=zaalberg

Cooke, Mordecai C. (1867) A voice from Paris, Hardwicke’s Science-Gossip, pages 97-99

Fournier, Marian (2003) Early Microscopes: A Descriptive Catalogue, Museum Boerhaave, Leiden, page 216

Internationale Tentoonstelling van Tuinbouw (1877) “908, J.J. Zaalberg van Zelst, Amsterdam, Microscoop à bascule (klein model)”

Netherlands vital records, accessed through ancestry.com

De Volksvlijt (1865) Report of prizes awarded by the Dutch Society for the Promotion of Industry at the exhibition of mathematical and physical instruments that was held in Leiden, pages 125-126