18th Apr, 2023 10:00

Photographica & Cameras Auction

 
Lot 105
 

105

A mid-19th Century mahogany Frederick J Cox Quarter-Plate Wet-Plate Sliding Box Camera

Unsold

 
A mid-19th Century mahogany Frederick J Cox Quarter-Plate Wet-Plate Sliding Box Camera, with dove-tail joints, with focusing screen, one locating fillet missing, 5in x 5in interior-dimension dark slide with quarter-plate insert with wire corner supports for plate, the camera and each component stamped 'III', with retailer's plate to top 'F. J. Cox, 22 Skinner Street, London', fitted with Charles Burr 7in Portrait Lens, with rack and pinion focusing and Waterhouse stop slot, engraved 'C. Burr, Optician, London, 3411', with lens cap, early 1860s, camera G, small scorch mark to front edge, tripod mount plate later inserted into baseboard, lens barrel P, edge of lens hood damaged on one side, focusing rack worn, elements F-G, some spotting and clouding, mainly at edges; lens probably original one fitted to camera as circular aperture in front panel appears original, but lens ring has been slightly rotated and remounted with larger screws (possibly at an early date as screw-head slots narrow), consistent with weight of lens tearing out original shorter narrower-gauge screws and subsequent impact damage to lens hood; Frederick Cox was at 22 Skinner Street from 1856 to 1866 and is known as the first manufacturer of Thomas Sutton's Panoramic Camera in 1860