I had a dream

[Dany]

Le reve

This camera has been sold in France circa 1902 by a company called Girard. The model name is "Le Rève" which means "The Dream" in French language.
The main feature of this old gear is that the rear part of the body which is housing a big rollfilm may be slided upward to be separated from the front part.
Between the two parts, a slot at the top allows for inserting a ground glass or a plate (ground glass lifted on the photo).
As a consequence, the camera may be used with rollfilms or plates.
The frame format is 9x12 cm
The film to be loaded, called "VIDIL", was very special. It allowed the framing and focusing on tracing paper portions interposed between each surface of sensitive film, themselves protected from light by a backing paper like for modern rollfilms.
The lens has no name. The shutter is a Bausch & Lomb providing 1/25 to 1/100 sec.
You may see one other Girard camera of my collection here:
Le reve idéal

 

[Jeff15]

Look a nice piece of kit........

 

[star camera company]

I’m always impressed with the quality and design of the metalwork on such a camera.

 

[webestang64]

I’m always impressed with the quality and design of the metalwork on such a camera.

Even the name plate is well designed.............

 

[IanG]

Hope you'll give it a try Daniel, you just need some 9x12 holders and film inserts

Very nice.

Ian

 

[Mitica100]

A beauty!