37. Kodak Hawkeye Box Camera, c. 1935

Signed: 'PORTRAIT HAWKEYE [STAR]', and on leather carrying handle: 'MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN BY KODAK LTD.'

Made for Kodak 620 film (introduced in 1931), taking 23 x 33 inches (57 x 82 mm) exposures. Single meniscus lens, with behind the lens rotary sector single-speed shutter. A portrait lens swivels in front of shutter by means of a lever.

This was essentially the standard Brownie camera with built-in portrait lens, and was manufactured from 1928 to 1933 in the newly-opened English Kodak factory. In 1930, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Eastman-Kodak company, a specially produced No 2 Hawkeye Model C (very basic box camera), was given away to American and Canadian children whose twelfth birthday fell in that year. Within a few days 550,000 had been claimed. In 1936, another very simple version, the Kodak Hawkeye Ace, was made solely for free distribution through coupon schemes by magazines such as Mickey Mouse Comic and John Bull.

Length 140 mm, width 80 mm, height 110 mm.
Inventory no. 92,329.