8 x 10", assembly no. 14

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Celluloid Label - upper portion of the ground glass frame, which reads: "The Scovill & Adams Co. / New York".

Serial or Assembly number "14" stamped on lower lens board and lower front standard.  The numbers "1" and "4" were stamped separately.

Serial or Assembly number "14" stamped on the lower ground glass frame and the lower rear standard.

Serial or Assembly number "14" stamped on the rear of platform.

Manufacturer: probably American Optical Co. New York, NY factory, although the label does not mention American Optical, so it could have been made at the Scovill New Haven factory.
Date Introduced: ? ; Years Manufactured: c.1898-c.1900
Construction: rear focus rack and pinion controlled by a thumbscrew on the right; single swing (this example) controlled by thumbscrew on the right; reversing by removable back; three-piece lens board
Materials: mahogany body; cherry base; black fabric bellows; nickel-plated brass hardware
Sizes Offered: probably 6½x8½; 8x10; 11x14; 14x17
Notes:   This camera has a label that reads: "The Scovill & Adams Co. / New York".  The American Optical Co. is not mentioned.  It may be that this camera was therefore made at the Scovill New Haven factory rather than the American Optical New York City factory, where the Landscape Camera Variation 1 was probably made.  Landscape cameras were always advertised as American Optical products, however.  This is just another example of Scovill (in this case Scovill & Adams) not being very forthcoming as to whether a given model or camera is American Optical (best workmanship) or Scovill (lesser workmanship).  This example is stamped with an assembly number or serial number "14" all throughout the camera, so it represents how the cameras was sold.

Landscape Reversible View Camera Model (from American Optical/Scovill Back Focus Tapering Bellows Field View Cameras - Chronology and Design) - Variations:

     The Acme and the Landscape cameras were never advertised at the same time.  In fact there is a gap of at least two years between the apparent abandonment of the Acme and the start of the Landscape.  Neither the Acme nor the Landscape view cameras were advertised in the Scovill & Adams Co. catalogs for January 1889, March 1889, March 1890, June 1890, April 1891, June 1891, and January 1892 (but no examples of catalogs from late 1892 through early 1895 have been observed as yet) or in the almanacs for 1892, 1893, 1894 and 1895.  However, it is also entirely possible that Acme-type cameras were still being manufactured 1892-1894, despite the lack of advertising seen so far.  During this Acme-Landscape gap, the only rear focus, cone bellows view camera advertised was the Flammang's Patent Revolving Back Camera Back Focus (a camera that is, other than its revolving back, identical to the Acme).

     To second-guess the Scovill & Adams executives, the Flammang's Patent Revolving Back Camera would appear to be a very expensive camera to be the only offering of this type.  Remember that a rear-focus camera is the only viable option for very large (usually professional) cameras, while the cone bellows reduces the weight of the very same large cameras.  It is as if Scovill & Adams was abandoning or at least reducing the options for the professional photographer.  Whatever the reason for discontinuing the Acme, it would seem that the executives soon recognized that a camera of lower cost than that of the Flammang's was needed - by the 1896 catalog, the Flammang's Revolving Back cameras have disappeared and the Landscape Reversible Back Camera has appeared.

     One major design difference between the Landscape Reversible View and the Acme Reversible View and the Flammang's Revolving Back View is that it has a simple, two spring, spring back arrangement - a design based on Thomas Blair's Sep. 2, 1884 patent, used on cameras of almost all plate or film view cameras made after 1901 (around the time the patent expired), and still used today.  Ads for the Landscape Camera always show the thinner and modern style (~ ½" thick) removable and reversible back, just as Acme ads always show their thick (more than 1" thick) back.

     A second new feature is a thick, all-wood construction front standard; the rising panel fits into vertical slots in the standard sides.  The rising panel is quite recessed behind the surface of the front standard, whereas the Acme and Flammang's Revolving Back rise panels are even with the supporting sides of the standard.  The rise locking mechanism is a spring-loaded button on the upper right side of the front standard, which, when pushed, disengages a saw-tooth shaped strip of steel..  In the older Acme and Flammang's Revolving Back cameras, the rising panels fit into slots in the standard sides, but panel is held in by full-height brass strips; the rising panel is controlled via a thumbscrew.

     Ads for the Landscape Camera appear c.1896 - c.1899 in the American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times Almanac.    Given the 2-4 year hiatus between advertisements of the Acme and advertisements of the Landscape, the Landscape isn't exactly a replacement for the Acme, but more like a revival.  Ads are always for the Landscape Camera Variation 1 - never Variation 2.