Scovill Mfg. Co. (New York, NY)
Peerless Portrait Lens (c.1860's-1880's)
Scovill Mfg. Co. "Peerless" Portrait Lens, 4-4 (largest offered) size,
F.L. 15½", Tangential Drive, Serial No. 133. This is a very
large and heavy lens, probably suitable only for studio cameras, as the
20x24" format J.A. Anderson camera on which this one sits. Its
lens board is 12x12". The lens itself is 5" diameter by 11" long.
Notes:
From http://www.antiquecameras.net/1876scovilllenscatalog.html, an excellent source of all kinds of wood and brass information:
While there is information and existing lenses to support that
Richard Morrison was involved in making a few lenses for the Scovill
Peerless Lens line (perhaps pre-1872) that feature radial drive
mechanisms, the common Peerless Petzval Lens line that sold for
about a 15 year period, starting in 1872, features a European
inspired tangential drive and construction details (see image
below). Also, note the Scovill article above mentions the Peerless
is "of foreign manufacturer...," and "is used in many of the
first-class galleries of Germany and France, and some in
America..." Speculation has it that the firm of Gasc & Charconnet of
France may have been the supplier of the Peerless lenses sold by
Scovill.
Peerless lenses having both radial and tangential drive are seen, e.g., this tangential drive lens and the radial drive example of the Quick-Acting Peerless elsewhere on this website. It would seem that the various types of Peerless lenses were made as early as the 1860's as the radial drive versions, and 1870's and later for the tangential drive versions.
