Another Interesting Find - Steampunk

[Heidi Rosser]

We'll just finished cleaning up yet another dirty old camera. It looks very steampunk.
This one I know nothing about and can't seem to find anything on. It's an early stereo camera but no makers marks.
Also came with a few extras.

Has anyone seen one of these before?

 

[Derrel]

That is one very attractive camera.

At one time in the late 19th century stereo cameras and stereo viewers were really quite popular, and well-photographed views of most of the famous tourist sites around the world were available to regular people in terms of stereo images which were available at their local library.

My hometown of Dallas, Oregon has a Carnegie Library and when I was a boy The Librarians allowed me full access to their rare collections room, where I was lucky enough to see many old stereo photos made in the 1880s and 1890s of sites such as the Great Pyramids at Giza, Niagara Falls, the Tower of London ,etc..

 

[Derrel]

At one time it was possible to buy a full set of stereo photographs of what was called the Grand Tour, which was basically all of the most famous landmarks throughout Europe. The photos were sold on durable cardstock about 1 in shorter than a standard business envelope.

This was of course decades and decades before the advent of the more modern GAF View-Master 3D photo system. Speaking of View-Master, when I was in my twenties and working at a photo store in Washington County, Oregon, we had a long time View-Master employee who was a keen 3D photographer, and he had worked there at View-Master for quite some time. He used to drop by the store and would show us his most recent images shot in 3D. He used a pair of 1950s vintage Stereo Realist cameras, and it was great to see local area tourist attractions in 3D.

 

[Heidi Rosser]

Yeah, I’ve always been interested in stereo cameras, but haven’t put a film through one yet. I guess I need to at some point as I have two of them now.

This one interested me as it was wood and brass. nit suite sure what the brass viewers are though. I think they were used with the camera as it all came in a package.

 

[Heidi Rosser]

This was a photo before the clean up. Not so attractive?!

 

[Tropicalmemories]

Very cool looking contraption, and yes, great steampunk style.

I think I got my love of travel from a Viewmaster 3D viewer and a set of 'Seven Wonders' round slides, but that was a much more modern device than this wood and brass beauty.

 

[star camera company]

Really nice camera and VERY tempting to me to build a wet plate version of the design.

 

[Dany]

It seems that the front part of your camera is sharing some DNA with this one which is from Lechner (Austria Circa 1904)

 

[IanG]

The stereo shutters were bought in from Thornton Pickard, I've restored a couple. The camera appears to be fixed focus. The cable release is made by Watson, they made various end fittings including one that lifts the TP shutter release arm.

Ian