22. Quarter-Plate Hand Camera, c. 1905

Signed on viewfinder hood: 'CENTURY CAMERA CO. CENTURY ROCHESTER. N.Y.', and on ivory strip: 'Century'.

The more convenient quarter-plate hand camera was developed from the 1890s to satisfy the growing demand for more portable cameras (see also item 148). This American version is typical. It is a leather-covered, mahogany and brass tapered-bellows ('drop-front') camera, for quarter plates (33 x 43 inches, or 80 x 110 mm). It is fitted with a rapid rectilinear lens of about 150 mm focal length, with a between-lens diaphragm and two-blade shutter with speeds 1 to 1/100 sec. operated by a pneumatic release and delay pistons. Standard features from now on will be a shutter and viewfinder, although this model also still has the ground glass focusing screen. This camera belonged to the well known local amateur photographer Henry Minn.

The shutter is based on the popular Bausch & Lomb 'Unicom' pattern of 1897 (see Item 135). The Century Camera Co. was absorbed by Kodak in 1907.

Height 140 mm, width 140 mm, length 75 mm (folded).
Inventory no. 70,724.