Holy moly, you guys have really planted some seeds here. I get teased sometimes at school about how much time I spend just looking at some of this stuff on eBay, but I'm hooked/fascinated. And so glad the summer is here so I can spend some time really looking into all of this. I also got a couple of other lenses from another lot that this auction house was selling--a 40cm with a dial on the barrel for the iris and a small, unmarked petzval type (w/3 waterhouse stops) that is unfortunately a little foggy at the rear element. May still get me some cool images--moody and such. The 40cm is marked No 2456 Aplanat extra rapid 1:5 No 4 Fer 40cm L. Renaux, Basel and is clean as a whistle. This is the one I got to work with my 12x15 because the guy who sold that told me said it had a 13.75" Hugo Meyer lens on it. Looking at it more closely, I see it's actually marked 17.75". Not as clean as the 40cm though. The lot with these other two lenses only cost me about $200, so Bill can't cast any disparaging remarks about my shopping habits on that one. Can't hurt to have a bunch of these, right? I may not be anywhere near where Jim is, but I'm going to have a lot of fun trying to get to that place! So now I'm looking at 11x14 cameras WITHOUT tapered bellows so that this monster can fit onto something. I guess without a shutter though, I won't be taking portraits.....

Thanks a lot for all of the help people (and the laugh or two)!