Some Soft Focus Lens Sales Information

[Steven Tribe]

The SAS site has all the serial numbers in their listings. There 2 main lot series with lenses. The non-soft are quite interesting too and attracted more competitive bidding than "ours". There was a very active woman (women?) bidding on lots.
The Struss was quite a rare bird in Europe, but I ran out of funding before it came up due to the 2 small Port-Lands which came up just before it.

I forgot to write that the Series 2E was the usual 270mm version.

[Amedeus]

Yeah ... I would have gone for the Portlands as well ;-) .. especially the 6" ..

The SAS site has all the serial numbers in their listings. There 2 main lot series with lenses. The non-soft are quite interesting too and attracted more competitive bidding than "ours". There was a very active woman (women?) bidding on lots.
The Struss was quite a rare bird in Europe, but I ran out of funding before it came up due to the 2 small Port-Lands which came up just before it.

I forgot to write that the Series 2E was the usual 270mm version.

[Amedeus]

Getting back to the Struss at the SAS auction Steve reported on ... first one I see with two aperture scales ... one for 6" and one for 9" ... Since this auction included an additional lens, safe to assume both lenses were there.

The SAS site has all the serial numbers in their listings. There 2 main lot series with lenses. The non-soft are quite interesting too and attracted more competitive bidding than "ours". There was a very active woman (women?) bidding on lots.
The Struss was quite a rare bird in Europe, but I ran out of funding before it came up due to the 2 small Port-Lands which came up just before it.

I forgot to write that the Series 2E was the usual 270mm version.

[goamules]

We only see a Karl Struss lens about once every year or two. With everyone watching closely. I'd say a Struss is the epitome of a rare lens.

[Steven Tribe]

This was an auction with a lot of similar lenses, the Kershaws, the Port-lands, the convertible Struss and the SF Dallmeyer, which perhaps influenced bidding results.

I'll try and get some information about the sources of these ( a collector or user) from Hugo Marsh - respecting client confidentiality, of course!

[Andrew Plume]

fwiw

SAS have literally 'coined' the UK market, it's the current hot place to sell, they have three very experienced guys there, two solely dealing with Cameras and are able to put far more resources into their sales, whereas other Auctioneer's have staff that have to be able to deal across the board with the entire 'collectible' range, i.e. they have to be "jacks of all trades"

the Struss was cheap - I understand that the initial chunk of wood and brass including the stereo ones all came from the same collector (who unusually isn't dead) - overall the sale prices were pretty well what I was expecting - I wasn't at the auction, the saleroom gets incredibly hot, I knew what to expect and it happened to be on the hottest ever recorded day in the UK

having taken in so many Cameras from one seller, I expect that there was a deal on the seller's commission, i.e. less than 15%

there was also a second day, which pretty well comprised leica only

andrew

[Andrew Plume]

Steven

I've dealt with your last post

andrew

[brandon13]

Plasticca Kunst portrait objectiv. 450mm f4 $2225.00 321794470334

[Mark Sawyer]

No, $1225 on that Plasticca...

[Steven Tribe]

All but one of the soft lenses in the SAS sales last week were indeed from a single collector.

SAS did join up here and posted details about this auction, but had their posting promptly removed!