The Eclipse - Early Plate Camera

[Heidi Rosser]

Managed to acquire this old girl today at a great price. When I collected it I realised it was much bigger than I thought possibly a full plate camera

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The Eclipse by Levi London 1861 to 1904. It looks very early, but the bellows are in amazing condition for the age.
Fitted with J H Dallmeyer lens which again is in great condition. The front part of the camera just needs to be reattached to the rails.

 

[otherprof]

Managed to acquire this old girl today at a great price. When I collected it I realised it was much bigger than I thought possibly a full plate cameraView attachment 182034 View attachment 182035 View attachment 182036 .
The Eclipse by Levi London 1861 to 1904. It looks very early, but the bellows are in amazing condition for the age.
Fitted with J H Dallmeyer lens which again is in great condition. The front part of the camera just needs to be reattached to the rails.

Great find!

 

[IanG]

Nice camera, it'll date from somewhere around 1886-1904.

Inadvertently you may have helped me identify who made my half plate "The Standard Camera" which looks very similar except has no front rack and pinion. Levi were a trade manufacturer, their 1898 advert shows they made "The Standard Enlarger".

Levi, & Jones were based in Farringdon Street it's on the edge of London's Hatton Garden Jewellery Quarter and there were a lot of small engineering workshops in the area, as well as other camera makers.

The bellows on my "The Standard Camera" are also in excellent condition for their age. It seems bellows were made from a few different materials and some age better than others..

Ian

 

[Derrel]

Handsome camera@!

 

[Heidi Rosser]

It sure is a big beast.

It amazes me how many of these cameras pop up over here in New Zealand. I guess they either came in with settlers or were acquired by collectors.
This one came from someone who has a vintage Theatre/cinema. He was also selling lots of old movie cameras. Although tempting I can't get into that too!

Glad this helped your identification Ian. I love to hear the history of these cameras.

 

[Jeff15]

A good looking old camera...............

 

[webestang64]

Elegant and cool......nice find.