Abraham Edens

Antony's: 
friend and buyer of some of his microscopes and lenses
Baptism: 
about 1690
Death or Burial date: 
June 21, 1765

Edens was a wealthy Rotterdam merchant. He owned a plantation in Surinam and had interests in the shipping trade throughout Europe and among the Dutch lands in the Americas and Asia.

In November 1723, Edens delivered to the Royal Society in London the 26 microscopes that Leeuwenhoek had instructed in his will to be given to the Royal Society. Two decades later, at the auction of Leeuwenhoek's microscopes in 1747, Edens bought 2 silver and 15 copper microscopes, among them one of the two large Vischkijkers (fish viewers). He also bought 12 of the unassembled lenses. In 1765, when his own cabinet of experimental philosophy was auctioned, he possessed only 3 of these microscopes and 8 of the lenses.

Edens's auction catalog: Verzameling van een party konst-gereedschappen, wiskundige, werktuigkundige, natuurkundige, gezichtkundige werktuigen, en andere rariteiten: nagelaten door […] Abraham Edens (Leyden: Hendrik Koster, 1765), p. 13