Ottewill folding box camera

PART OF:
The Kodak Museum Collection
Made:
1853 in London
maker:
Thomas Ottewill and Company
Ottewill folding box camera
    
    
    
    Ottewill folding box camera

Ottewill folding box camera Ottewill folding box camera
The Kodak Collection at the National Media Museum, Bradford

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
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