Louis Gandolfi and Sons Ltd

In 1885 Louis Gandolfi set up a cameramaking business, initially over a tobacconist's shop in Kensington Place, Westminster, and later at premises in Old Kent Road. In 1913 the business was transferred to Peckham Rye and it was later moved to a site on Borland Road, Peckham, in 1928.

The early camera designs of Louis Gandolfi were comparatively simple. The camera were made from a small number of parts and could be put together and sold cheaply. As the business began to prosper a much wider range of equipment was offered. The most successful Gandolfi designs were based on traditional dry-plate apparatus and it was with these cameras that he began to build his business.

Models of superior and improved quality led to a thriving trade with civil and military authorities, particularly in India and Burma. The outbreak of war in 1914 destroyed much of Gandolfi's market but he was able to maintain production with the aid of a Royal Naval Air Service order for cameras. After the war the Gandolfis (Louis Gandolfi's sons Frederick, Arthur and Thomas were beginning to become involved with the business) had to come to terms with the new precision miniature cameras which were mass produced in Germany. The business became more dependent on traditionally made large format cameras for the technical and professional photographer.

By 1930 the Gandolfis were over the worst of the 1920s recessions. The eldest son, Tom (born 1890), having survived service in the Great War, devoted himself to cabinetmaking, whilst the middle son, Fred (born 1904), who could do most things, was showing business ability. 'Young' Arthur, having left the business during the 1920s to learn clerical work, returned to fill the job of assembly and finishing. Louis was happy that his three sons could continue the family concern in his tradition and passed the family business onto the three sons after his death in 1932.

None of the Gandolfi brothers was called up in the Second World War. Tom was too old and Fred and Arthur were in a reserved occupation supplying portrait cameras and tripods to the Admiralty, Air Ministry and War Department. Ironically, the brothers were offered a government contract to supply 1,000 cameras, which they soon realised they could not fulfil. The contract went to a rival maker, Watson, who used outworkers. The Gandolfis spent much of the war repairing the results.

Post-war the market for prison 'mugshots' revived a 1935 product. No fewer than 38 prisons and police authorities in the UK alone were customers. There was also an export business to the colonies.

Always a supplier to educational and scientific bodies, the 5 x 4 in format 'Precision' camera was the cheapest of its kind, with the result that the burgeoning photographic colleges bought them by the dozen. This gave rise to a brand loyalty amongst the ex-students, who created a demand unknown before. Rather as with the Morgan sports car, waiting-lists grew from months to years in the early 1970s, which was a situation that the Gandolfis never exploited. Their cameras were fetching a premium on the open market, with the result that dealers' orders were no longer accepted and private customers were subject to some searching questions.

Tom Gandolfi died in 1965, adding a further burden to Arthur and Fred. It was not until 1976, when Tom's son Tom junior - after taking early retirement from engineering - was persuaded into the firm, that delivery times began to improve.

By 1980, it was obvious to Arthur and Fred that they could not go on much longer. They had achieved an ambition of 100 years as a family of camera-makers, wanted to reach 100 years of the Gandolfi company, but realised that outside help was necessary.

With a too-full order-book, there were many would-be purchasers for the company. Fred and Arthur were not prepared to let the family name go easily. A compromise was made with Brian Gould and his partner Sir Kenneth Corfield, who purchased the company in 1982, supplied the last apprentice, and every Gandolfi from then on carried a satisfaction certificate signed by Fred. The brothers saw their 100 years' ambition achieved, and were awarded honorary life memberships of the Royal Photographic Society and the British Institute of Professional Photographers, in recognition of their services to photography.