J T Chapman folding plate camera

J T Chapman folding whole plate camera, made Manchester 1880s.

J T Chapman Limited was established by Josiah Chapman as a medical and photographic chemist in Manchester in 1874, but gradually focused on the photographic side of the business. After an early emphasis on making photographic emulsions and plates, Chapman began offering his own designs of camera in 1883. These were initially made for them by other firms, but the company may later have had its own factory. Chapman marketed its own cameras until the early decades of the 20th century, but eventually focussed on retailing those produced by others.

This is one of Chapman’s early cameras, probably dating to the later 1880s. Stamped label on top of camera housing: "J.T Chapman Photographic Chemist Albert Square, Manchester," where Chapman was located from about 1883. It is a whole plate folding camera, made of mahogany wood, fitted with a double extension rising front with Chapman/Scott patent swing back, a Dallmeyer Stigmatic lens with Waterhouse stops, and featuring rack focus. It is labelled “Scott's patent No. 12389,” which was issued to Chapman and Scott in 1884 for a device to raise and extend the lens. Cameras of this type were marketed by Chapman for a few years in the 1880s with the advertising claim that it was “now acknowledged by scores of the best workers - professional and amateurs - to be the most sensible camera yet offered.” Chapman seems to have moved onto other designs by the end of the 1880s. It is a fairly typical folding field camera of the day, intended to be used on a stand and taking negatives on glass plates coated in light sensitive chemicals, which were developed to make finished photographs. Such cameras were often used by architectural or engineering photographers in the field, with the "whole plate" size offering better image quality than half or quarter plate sizes.