21. Half-Plate Field Camera, c. 1890

Signed on back: 'PECROPS' and 'R & J Beck LONDON No 420.', and on base 'R & J Beck.'

One of the new generation of portable dry plate bellows cameras for use on a tripod which began to appear from the 1870s. This model is for half plates (160 mm x 120 mm). Taylor, Taylor and Hobson f8 symmetrical meniscus doublet lens of 185 mm focal length, with between lens iris diaphragm but no shutter.

This camera with a few accessories in a leather carrying case belonged to Thomas Robert Tighe Chapman, the father of T. E. Lawrence (see also Item 57).

Height 200 mm, width 200 mm, length 60 mm (folded).
Inventory no. 92,030.