 They were a noted telescope maker throughout the 19th and 20th century, making telescope throughout the World and some of the largest British telescopes, including one of their final projects, the William Herschel Telescope in the 1980s.In the late 1800s they were one of the few companies that could make large doublet objective lenses

The company was founded in Dublin by Thomas Grubb as the Grubb Telescope Company in 1833.Thomas Grubb was joined in 1864 by his son Howard who built on the company's reputation for quality optical instruments.