Your Oldest Lens

[Steven Tribe]

Another factor influencing the number of early Chevalier and Early Petzval type lenses in the market place now is that many of these have been donated to or acquired by Photography/Technology museums as early as the late 19th century. Some of these museums/collections have been broken up - but quite few early lenses (100's ?) remain in public collections.

[Steven Tribe]

.............some great early lenses here fellow members

my oldest is almost certainly serial no: 2200 by M Lerebours and also bearing the inscription 'Vallantin Opticien de 1840 a 1851', where that places the serial no regarding the likely date, is beyond me but I'm hoping that Steven or Garrett or some others can possibly chip in and assist

no, it's not up for p ex at Bievres next month, that's if anyone desires it............

andrew

Perhaps this thread deserves another go?
Anyway, I have some more information about Vallantin.
Andrew, the usual engraving is ".. de 1840 a 1856..". This obviously the period he worked (or was employed) by Lerebours.
So his production was in the period following this.

There is another "French" maker who employs almost the same engraving "eleve de Lerebours" L.F. Colas. His lenses appear on quite a few early English sliding box cameras from the late 1850's. Strangely enough, he seems to have spent most of his time in London with various endeavours - not France. And all "his" lens edges are covered with the "Vallantin" name!

So we have another UK importer of French lenses in the 1850's.

[goamules]

I remember researching a London importer who was the only one that imported a certain French lens, I believe. But can't recall any details. I think it was Mark's lens, and I was helping him research it. Do you remember, Mark?

UPDATE: disregard, I was confused. Found my notes. We were researching L. Puech who was Dallmeyer’s sole agent for a while in France.

Back to The French Connection and Steven's question. Since the French were the first making daguerreotype lenses (Chevalier and Lerebours), it stands to reason that someone in London would have started buying these new things right away. Later, British makers like Shepard, Cox, Thornthwaite, Ross that had been making nautical and astronomy telescopes, branched into photography lenses.

[anachromatic]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think Andrew Ross is in a different category than other manufacturers like Shepard, Thornthwaite, Cox... Andrew Ross was a really early manufacturer and certainly the first one to make Petzval lenses in U.K. almost at the same time than Lerebours in France.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Wow! This thread has adjusted my concept of 'old'!

[Two23]

I've read of guys taking eyepiece lens from old telescopes, essentially an achromatic doublet, and using those as camera lenses. Some of these are from the late 1700s! Anyone want to comment on that?



Kent in SD

[Steven Tribe]

I think you mean the objective lens, which is a cemented, air spaced or an oil joined approach to an achromat - the lens at the front of the telescope.

I wish the first photographic lens makers had continued to the light card/wood construction of early telescopes, so we would not have to struggle with heavy brass!

[RedGreenBlue]

There is another "French" maker who employs almost the same engraving "eleve de Lerebours" L.F. Colas. His lenses appear on quite a few early English sliding box cameras from the late 1850's. Strangely enough, he seems to have spent most of his time in London with various endeavours - not France. And all "his" lens edges are covered with the "Vallantin" name!

So we have another UK importer of French lenses in the 1850's.

I've enjoyed following this thread.

I have a Colas lens on a sliding box camera. The engraving goes "L.F. Colas Eleve de Lerebours Paris". Difficult to make out, but the serial number appears to be 502. I took this photo some years ago and it is not the best for viewing the engraving, which is faint. I also posted a photo of the quarter-plate camera. There are collodion stains on the back.

I located an 1857 advertisement for L.F. Colas lenses. What I don't know and perhaps I can learn from someone here is - did Colas make these lenses or was he an importer of Lerebours lenses? Why does he refer to himself as a "student of Lerebours"?

Scott

[anachromatic]

"Élève" is closer to "disciple" than "student".
And "disciple of Lerebours" is because Lerebours was one of the most renowned makers at that time.

[Steven Tribe]

Most Colas lenses found through searches appear together with delightful sliding box cameras like yours (1856-60?).

Here is a link to a slightly earlier Colas, that has been "undressed"! This is not my lens. Plenty of Vallantin writing on the lens edges.

https://drive.google.com/drive/mobil...Tg?usp=sharing

For me, the most significant link to Vallantin is what he engraved on his lenses - this is very similar to that found on Colas lenses.

So I think the likely scenario is :

Colas discovered a UK market for sliding box cameras around 1856. He had the cameras made and had an agreement with the newly independent maker Vallantin (ex-lerebours) to supply lenses to be engraved in London. The "light" engraving is very typical of UK brass engravers. It is in French and says Paris - France was still regarded as the home of Photography.

I would imagine that Colas's serial numbers are taken directly from Vallantin's stock ledger! Just as J.F. Shew used Lerebours' serial numbers at exactly the same period.