Ottewill folding box camera
Ottewill wetplate sliding box camera with hinged sides, folding flat, for wholeplates. Grubb's Aplanatic lens with wheel stops; sold by Watson and Sons; rising and cross front; sliding focusing on rear (locking screw missing); focusing screen (glass missing); no plate holder; nameplate missing (photographic reproduction from similar camera in the Science Museum).
Ottewill folding box camera made by T Ottewill and Company in England, 1853.
Ottewill began producing this camera from the early 1850s. The Journal of the Photographic Society commended the camera with 'there is none which more fully combines the requisite strength and firmness with a high degree of portability and efficiency'. The camera was still available into the 1860. Ottewill designed the camera to be compact for carrying and field work combining a sliding box design with the folding principle to make a robust yet portable camera.
Details
- Category:
- Photographic Technology
- Collection:
- Kodak Collection
- Object Number:
- 1990-5036/7299
- Materials:
- wood (unidentified), metal (unknown) and glass
- Measurements:
-
overall: 220 mm x 275 mm x 514 mm,
Glass plate with wooden frame: 197 mm x 252 mm x 301 mm,
- type:
- box camera and plate camera
- credit:
- The Kodak Collection at the National Media Museum, Bradford
