Scovill Favorite

Scovill Mfg. Co., Waterbury, CT & New Haven, CT

Favorite Outfit(A-EEE)

Scovill's Photo. Series No. 20, Dry Plate Making for Amateurs, Scovill Mfg. Co. (New York, NY), 1886, p. a3-a5 (A-E, AA-DD)

Favorite View having a 5 x 5" ground glass, natural varnished white wood, loose ground glass frame, serial no. 645. The camera bears a Buchanan, Bromley & Co., Philadelphia" label. The camera and its carrying case are have been heavily scuffed and soiled. The finish of the camera has darkened over time - unusual for a cased camera.

Celluloid label, upper front standard, reading: "Buchanan, Bromley & Co., Philadelphia, PA". Buchanan, Bromley was a large seller of Scovill products. The Philadelphia Photographer was one of the early photography periodicals, started in 1864.

Stamp, serial number "645", bottom of front standard.

Three stamps of the serial number 645, lower part of ground glass frame, and the tilting and non-tilting parts of the rear standard.

Photographs of the inside top of the carrying case: left = as received, and right = contrast enhanced using blue light only.
One inscription in pencil reads: "W.H. 84 State St.". Another, in blue pencil or pen reads: "12-91 - Walter Pierson, Amateur Photographer, 360 Bridge St., Brooklyn, Ny".
Assuming that 12-91 indicates 1891, a search of the 1880 and 1900 US censes were made for Walter H. Pierson of Brooklyn, with no success.

Another 5 x 5", natural varnished white wood, loose ground glass frame, serial no. 751. This example has light wood, probably appearing much as it would have when new.

Stamp, serial number "751", bottom of front standard.

Two stamps of serial numbers: Top: "751" on the end of the tilting part of the rear standard, and "551"? (maybe 681, 661, but the first digit is not "7"), top surface of the platform of the rear standard.

5 x 8, natural varnished white wood, hinged ground glass frame. serial no. 793

Three serial number stamps: top: bottom of lens board (866), middle: bottom of rising part of front standard (793), and bottom: bottom of stationary part of front standard (793).

Two more serial number stamps: top: bottom of ground glass frame (793), and bottom: top surface of the platform of the rear standard (793), the "7" obscured by the thumbscrew.

5 x 8, stained white wood, hinged ground glass frame. serial no. 859

6½ x 8½, natural varnished white wood, post-manufacture hinges added to ground glass frame. serial or assembly no. 10

Stamped serial no. 10 on lens board and lower front standard

Stamped serial no. 10 on lower ground glass frame and lower rear standard

Scovill & Adams Co. Plate Holder

Stamp on front of plate holder

Manufacturer: Scovill Mfg. Co., New Haven, CT factory
Date Introduced: - ; Years Manufactured: c.1885-1898
Construction: back focus via push-pull; single swing; reversing by two tripod mounts
Materials: white wood (e.g. basswood) body; cherry bed; black fabric bellows; brass hardware
Sizes Offered: #A=4x5 (shown in photos above); #B=5x8 (shown in photos below); #C=5x8 stereo; #D=6½x8½; #E=8x10; all sizes and letters have folding beds
Notes:

This is a basic no-frills camera; came with a nickeled Waterbury lens w/ insertable stops (by 1889, the stops were revolving), plate-holder and wooden case. #'s AA-DD add a dark cloth, plates and ruby lantern. #'s AAA-EEE add what's in the AA's and a developing outfit and a printing outfit. The letter designations were general, and were also used to describe Ne Plus Ultra outfits.

It is of the few vertical 4x5 format cameras made, although it would be more accurately called 5x5; it had a special 4x5 holder which could be attached either horizontally or vertically without repositioning the camera. This was a common approach in the early years of the dry plate era, especially with smaller formats, for which weight was not much of an issue. Later, when weight was more of a concern, cameras were built barely larger than the plates they took, a number of ways being invented to allow the back to be repositioned.

The Favorite has very similar sizes and offerings to the earlier Tourist Amateur Outfits, and may actually be a re-naming or continuation of the same, since the Tourist Amateur Outfits apparently ceased being advertised about the time the Favorite started being advertised.

Not all Favorite Views match the catalog descriptions. The catalogs descriptions tout a "vertical shifting front", whereas the engravings that come with those descriptions show a camera that clearly does not have a vertical shifting front. Cameras such as the above examples demonstrate that some do (5x8) and some don't (5x5 and 6½x8½).

Most Favorite Views have loose ground glass frames, that are easily lost, but, as the example above show, some have hinged frames to make the ground glass hard to lose, and some don't.

Some Putnam Marvel cameras are the Favorite View stamped and apparently resold by Putnam. Some Favorite Views are not even stamped by Scovill.

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