Watson & Sons Van Neck Plate Camera
Category
Photographic technology
Date
1890
Materials
Wood, Leather, Glass
Measurements
150 x 125 x 220 mm
Order this imageCollection
Fox Talbot Museum, Wiltshire
NT 1524832
Summary
Van Neck Plate Camera Wooden camera covered in black leather with a handle on the top. With black leather bellows to assist the plate changing mechanism. It has a quarter plate (4 1/4 x 3 1/4 inches) with a magazine that can hold twelve glass plates.The view finder was placed in the top middle of the camera and shown the exact size as photographed. The finder and the plate exposure are serviced by a single lens and the image in the finder is focused it is intern focused on the plate. Focus adjustment is accomplished by movement of a screw and a focusing scale without using the ground glass. Fitted with a special rapid rectilinear lens and time and instantaneous shutter. At the front of the camera is a small flap which when lifted exposes the lens of the camera. Tripod bush on side and base of camera. Markings - on underside of flap that exposes the plate changing bellows are two plates."Watson & Sons, manufacturers, 313 High Holborn London" and the other "Jasper Redfern Opticals - Sheffield"
Provenance
Part of the Fenton Collection. A gift from British Film Institute in 2017. From 1986-1999, part of BFI collection for the Museum of the Moving Image. BFI purchased collection in 1986 from James Fenton's Museum of Photography, Port Erin, Isle of Man 1976-1986.