Voigtlander & Sohn No. 9, ca. 1875

[tuant]

Big as it is, when mounted, it will be something like this This is a giant cone lens, just right for 24x32 wetplate portrait. For the Voigtlander 9 petzval, the image circle will just be about 2" larger than this giant cone. The lens board is 12" square carbon fiber. With a special lens support, it will work, but the stand needs to be fortified because the No. 9 weighs about 15 more pounds and 6" longer. Over the years I have asked Chamonix to make 4 of this size cameras. I still have an extra one if anyone is interested I use one myself.

Tuant

[Mark Sawyer]

Suddenly I'm appreciating the ergonomics of Petzval's old Orthoscop. This 1859-ish Voigtlander Orthoscop with a 36-inch focal length and image circle fits comfortably on a 9x9-inch lens board.

Orthoscop 1s by Mark Owen Sawyer, on Flickr

[codymobley]

Big as it is, when mounted, it will be something like this This is a giant cone lens, just right for 24x32 wetplate portrait. For the Voigtlander 9 petzval, the image circle will just be about 2" larger than this giant cone. The lens board is 12" square carbon fiber. With a special lens support, it will work, but the stand needs to be fortified because the No. 9 weighs about 15 more pounds and 6" longer. Over the years I have asked Chamonix to make 4 of this size cameras. I still have an extra one if anyone is interested I use one myself.

Tuant

I like making Lewis cameras.....I might make a huge Lewis style camera for this lens. Here's a 6th plate relievo ambrotype of my halfplate Lewis camera that is my workhorse.

[goamules]

Neat. If you decide what types of photography you mostly want to do, you can get by without even having bellows. Just have fixed focus at one distance, and always shoot there. Move the subject in and out until they are in perfect focus.

[codymobley]

I have the lens in hand and it is a beast.

[Steven Tribe]

If the box in the foreground is what it came in, then I can confirm that it is not the original Voigtlander box!

[codymobley]

The box in the foreground is just what it was delivered to Houston antique store in. The name of the box was a farmer in Tyler, Texas and likely was reused due to it being a good fit for the lens at some point in its life.

[Leszek Vogt]

Wow, v. cool lens and very nice find. Glad you can use it. Love to see some images from it. Congrats!

Les

[higherres]

The lens is just about useless for photography. There may be a handful of people doing ultra large format who might be interested in mounting the lens on their cameras just to see, but you could count those people on the fingers of one hand. The real value of the lens is as a collector's item, and if you aren't a collector, I would advise selling it and using the proceeds to purchase lf gear you personally could use. Or a new car (a small one).

Hi Jody,
I'm curious why you would say that this lens is just about useless for photography?

[higherres]

This is too big a lens to have been used by an ordinary portrait photographer, not just in Texas, but anywhere!

Tyler cannot be the first owner, in my view, unless - as someone mentioned - he used his earnings in the pursuit of stars and planets on his estate!

An institution of some sort must have been the first owner. Many of the super large optics of the 19th century are still attached to astronomical instruments. Judging from the condition of the lens, I would guess that this was a purchase made in error, as there is no sign of use or special mounting that would have been necessary for telescope use.

Now Denmark is a little country and all the strange things that happen to items which are owned by Public Institutions (Scientific Establishment, Museums and so on) which are no longer on display/use and placed in store rooms, have often become public knowledge.

One super example is the State Museum of Art. Here thousands of paintings have been in store for over 60 years. Long ago, A Minister of Culture decided that these paintings should be seen. A system of loan to Schools, semi-indpendent Government institutions was arranged - a kind of long term loan Library system. Record keeping was very poor, but a check about 20 years ago revealed that approximately half of these works of art were no longer traceable. A few were discovered to have been sold at auction years before and many were found in private "Ownership"!

An analysis of a few cases showed that it was not simple theft. A typical sequence of events was.

Office manager gets a canvas on loan from the State art depot.
Office manger gets to like "his" art.
Office manager retires and takes his art with him home.
Office manager dies.
The artwork is considered as part of his legacy by the family.
Artwork is sold/attempted sold at auction.

It is possible that this lens has been disposed of officially, without the real value of the lens being judged. There have also been periods when this lens would have been considered as a piece of old useless optical junk from the 19th Century and could have bought for very little. I am sure many readers here would still share this view! If the person on the box had paid a lot - or even used this lens - I am sure that his heirs would have known about it and it wouldn't have ended up in a non-specialist shop in Houston. The Icelandic Nicola Perscheid lens mentioned here last week shows that the later generations do have a good knowledge of Photographers in the family.

I am not suggesting this lens is somehow tainted by a questionable past - that looks very unlikely in this case. I am just trying to figure out how such a unique lens ended up in Texas.

I'm not sure why you would make an assumption that this lens would be an optical piece of junk from the 19th century? And to say that many readers here would agree is also arrogant, if not completely assumptive.