I know, I don’t really need another camera, but this one I was curious about.
It’s a 10×12 inch wet plate tailboard camera, but what caught my attention was the unusual back for the ground glass and plate holder. It seemed to be internally sprung but was top slot loading like my sliding box camera. I wanted to see more of the mechanism so I left a few bids with the auction house.
My initial interest was squashed when the auction house somehow managed to send me the wrong Lot. They sent me the next lot in the auction which was a quarter plate “microscope” plate camera. Interesting but not what I paid for.
A courier was quickly dispatched to remedy their glaring mistake.
Today this arrived. A 10×12 inch tailboard camera maybe dating from the 1860s. The bellows are cloth and in pretty good condition considering the age.
Sadly, they managed to damage the plate holder when packing. Very annoying but it should glue back into place.
There are a few nibbles to the woodwork but overall it is in a good used condition, with a number of silver nitrate stains.
Here you can see the internal springs that press the ground glass into the same focal.plane as the plate holder.
What didn’t occur to me was that it allows for the depth of the woodwork of the plate holder to align to the focal plane. That’s quite a large gap that I’m not used to. I wonder how that will affect focusing with light dropping through, I guess a darkcloth is a necessity then. The plate holder neatly drops into the area and moves the ground glass back against the springs.
The tailboard is locked into place by sliding two sturdy base panels forward into the front section.
The threaded spindle is basic but runs very smoothly and guides the camera back along the two brass rails. I’m assuming there are some missing brass pieces as there are no locking mechanisms for focus or for folding the camera.
The front is missing some woodwork where it mounts the lens, you can make our the shadow of where it used to be. Easily sorted with a variety of spare donor camera parts in the store. I also have a 10 inch? Charles Burr f4 brass lens that should be okay for portraits, otherwise there’s the Dallmeyer 4D but there’s limited bellows extension. So I’ll have to see what suits it best.
The plate holder is in good condition despite the delivery damage. The leather pulls are deteriorated of course. And there are white metal staples in each corner for the plate to sit on? which I’ve never come across before. Anyone else seen that, it cannot be common. Unless it’s a later adaptation for slotting film into place?
If anyone recognises any of its features regarding its manufacturer, please let me know. There are no marking internally or externally.