Wet plate collodion camera c1870
Unknown maker.
Wet plate collodion process was introduced in1851 by the Englishman
Frederick Scott Archer. It required the the glass plate to be exposed
still wet after being sensitised with silver nitrate. Here is a web site
that describe the collodion
process.
This particular camera was made for 13x18 cm glass plates
(approx. 5x7") and it is made of walnut wood work. There are no
makers name present but stamped on the wood are A L on a couple of places. The brass lens is marked Stenheil München no 10241 and the flange is marked
Aplanat 14 lin.
This camera have some very neat features for it's age. The front have double upp and down
movements....
|
|
|
...and it have a back focusing extention. The back can also be rotated for portrait/landscape format. In fact the bellows
are attached to a rotating disc on the front and the whole bellows
rotate with the back. The back is then attached to the base board with a wing
nut behind the ground glass. Very clever construction. The bellows it self
are of a quite unususal design, it
starts out same size and then gets cone shaped (tapered) after 5 folds.
|
French maker?, I think so, it was acquired from France and despite the
German lens it looks very French to me, but...
... I would very much appreciate any comments or leads to it's maker or origin.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
