top of page

Houghton Victo
c. 1904

I purchased this beauty during my stay in Cambridge in 2011. Its previous owner had inherited it from his grandfather, who worked in a pottery factory creating photos for the company's sales catalogues. When I acquired it, it was in poor condition, but after an extensive restoration process it was brought back to life.

wood and brass stand victorian edwardian english plate camera on tripod baush and lomb lens on garden

The brass overlay lacquer was damaged, which made it difficult to set up the camera. I took everything apart to remove the old lacquer, eliminate the corrosion from the brass, and re-lacquer it.

brass and wood plate camera deteriorated metal lacquer
The camera came with a Baush & Lomb anastigmatic lens with an in-built 'Unicum' shutter, patented on 6th January 1891. All the metal parts were quite dirty, the incredibly simple shutter with just two blades was stuck, and one of the diaphragm blades had a broken pin. To restore it to working condition I had to disassemble everything for cleaning, polishing and finishing. I lacquered some brass parts and nickel-plated others to match their original state.  
Baush and Lomb Beck symmetrical lens Pat. Januay 6 1891
Baush and Lomb lens shutter blades mechanism restoration repair
Baush and Lomb lens diaphragm blades 1891 repair restoration

The metal parts of the lens had similar issues and the shutter was stuck, so I needed to disassemble everything for cleaning, polishing and finishing. I lacquered some parts and nickel-plated others restoring them to their original state. The incredibly simple two-blade shutter was dirty and the diaphragm didn't work properly because one blade had a broken pin. 

Baush and Lomb pneumatic lens 1891 obsolete camera

Now the lens looks and work almost like new! This is how it sees the world:

The fine detail of the images produced by the Baush & Lomb lens is astonishing. I could even recognize some of the people crossing the old bridge!

​​

​

​

​New lenses

​

A few years later, after establishing TheObsoleteCamera, I decided to experiment with a Dallmeyer N.4 'Stigmatic' lens from 1897. This lens lacks an built-in shutter and I bought a roller-blind type from the same period. It was easy to make the lens functional just by cleaning it very carefully, however, the shutter needed a full overhaul. After a few weeks everything was functional and light tight again and then I decided test it in London.

And here are the results:

bottom of page