Scovill Mfg. Co.
American Optical Company

 

 

View Camera Boxes Transitional to the 76 Camera

***Identified:  American Optical Model Stereo View Camera***

 

 

4¼ x 6½".  Rear focusing, straight bellows like The 76 Camera, but push-pull focus and center swing and different hardware than The 76.  It bears an American Optical Co. stamp, and has typical American Optical characteristics: smooth and shiny French polish finish on the wood, draw file finish on the hardware, and screw slots laboriously aligned with the long side of hardware.
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AOModStCat.jpg (63797 bytes)863.americn.optical-transitional.76-4.25x6.5c-750.jpg
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Stamp near the top of the ground glass frame: "Amer. Optical Co., Scovill Mfg. Co., N.Y."  (not fully visible, but a common stamp for American Optical cameras to have.
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Both the hinged section and the detachable rear extension section have two stamps: 1) the assembly number "3", and 2) "Scovill Manufacturing Co. - New York".
The Scovill stamp having the word
Manufacturing: spelled out is an early form.  By about 1885, a one-line stamp was in use having the abbreviation Mfg.
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Stamp on the rear standard platform: "3", an assembly number matching the others on the camera.
Note that the focus is sharp from the top of the camera to the bottom despite the closeness of the view.  This cannot be achieved in the camera, but is the result of combining, using a computer program, the sharp areas of 12 images, each taken at a different focus.  Such programs are commonly used for photomicrographs in science.
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Two paper labels on the inside cover of the case.  The first was oval, and is the label of Crouch & Fitzgerald of New York, a high end luggage maker (supplying to such customers as Washington Irving, Henry Clay Frick, the Vanderbilt family, and John F. Kennedy),from 1839 for more than 150 years.
The Crouch & Fitzgerald tag has been covered by a round tag on which can be seen: "
W. Q--n, Photographic Materials 61 Williams St., New York, NY". This is undoubtedly a New York office of the firm of James W. Queen & Co. of Philadelphia, a large photographic equipment supplier.  Queen & Co. sold cameras manufactured by a variety of companies, including Scovill Mfg. Co., Rochester Optical Co., E.&H.T. Anthony & Co., and The Eastman Co. (see Queen's 1891 catalog).  This camera does not appear in the few Queen & Co. catalogs that I have seen.
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Manufacturer: American Optical Co. New York, NY factory
Date Introduced:
  ; Years Manufactured: c.1876
Construction: rear focus via push-pull; double swing; reversing via second tripod screw; three-piece lens board
Materials: mahogany body; cherry base; black fabric bellows; brass hardware
Sizes Offered: 4¼x6½;
Notes:  

     The photographs above are of a 4¼x6½" camera in a period case.  The camera was purchased in August of 2011, on-line.

2011 Analysis:

     The camera has straight (rather than tapered) bellows, and a double tilt mechanism involving two sliding thumbscrews, also seen on the c.1886 Flammang's Patent Revolving Back Camera. The focus is push-pull on a plain wooden track (no brass guides), tightened by a lever screw mechanism.  The front rise is protected by a metal surround that doubles as the top lens board retainer.  The camera has the careful fit and beautiful and smooth French polish finish of the typical American Optical product.  The case has a label from Crouch & Fitzgerald of New York (luggage makers, founded 1839), over which has been placed a label from J. W. Queen, 61 Williams St., New York (see 1891 Jas. W. Queen catalog). 

     Even as identified as an American Optical product, it has a configuration unlike any advertised straight bellows models, of which there are only a few:  The 76 Camera, the Kilburn Gun Camera, the early AO View Camera Box

     It seems to be an AO View Camera Box transitional to The 76 Camera.
     - It is double swing, like the View Camera Boxes, but uses a different device for the left-right swing.
     - It has a focus-tightening lever, like The 76 Camera, but unlike the focusing screw of the View Camera Boxes.  Focusing screws seem to be a wet plate/early dry plate-era device.
     - It does not have brass plate strengthening/wear shields on its front, as are present on View Camera Boxes, Neither this camera nor The 76 Camera have them.  Such brass plates also seem to be a wet plate/early dry plate-era feature.
     - It has a short rear extension for the base.  No advertised AO straight bellows model has such a base extension.  It was probably a special order for a pet lens, although the lens currently installed does not require the extension, having a back focal length of only 9-10 inches.

2023 Analysis:

     In 2023, I found a catalog showing an engraving of the Model Stereo View Camera, having never had such a visual record of the Model Stereo before.  The description of the Model Stereo is that it is "the same design and appearance is the same as The 76 Camera".  It turns out that the above camera is pretty much the same as the Model Stereo engraving, except that the camera is push-pull focus, whereas the engraving is rack and pinion focus.  The same misconnect between push-pull and rack and pinion focus can be found for The 76 Camera, where engravings appear to be push-pull and the cameras are usually rack and pinion.  So, all-in-all, this camera is probably the Model Stereo (see Model Stereo web page)

 

References:
 

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