A clutch of dirty Antique Shop Lenses - what are they?

[Tim Meisburger]

Interestingly, on that ebay one the name is in cursive, as it is on the small lens in my first post, while on my 3B it is engraved in a very plain font. Don't know what that signifies.

Joe, I couldn't have bought any of that stuff with cash on hand. Luckily, in Thailand they accept plastic

[Steven Tribe]

The 3B is the late model with turn of the whole front barrel. This should be no problem (just time, lubricant and careful torque) to fix.
Hell, I made a 3B from cells alone!
The other Dallmeyer is a problem. Doesn't seem to fit in anywhere. This may be one for Seán?
Perhaps one of a pair of Patent Stereographic (Petzvals)? These were made with efl less than 4".

[Tim Meisburger]

Thanks Steven. It somehow reminds me of stereo pairs I have seen before, but I think it odd it has no provision for stops, unless it used washer stops?

After hearing how much that 3b sold for on ebay I was thinking of selling this one, but I screwed the old lensboard to the front of my B&J and took three shots around the house and just developed the negatives and they look great! They are hanging now, but if they re as good when I print them as they look now, I might have trouble letting go of this...

[Steven Tribe]

The serial number is well past the date for Waterhouse stops.
The design might make sense if you could see which stereo camera it was mounted on. Will ask Seán as the ledgers often have data on to whom it was sold.

[Tim Meisburger]

Okay. Who is Sean? Does he work at Dallmeyer? I thought 17,036 would have been a relatively early number, as the 3b is in the hundred thousands, but maybe it doesn't work that way. There used to be a list of the serial numbers with dates online, but I cannot find it anymore.

[eddie]

nice work tim!

sell t hat dallmeyer....the money will go far in thailand....buying more beer for me!

bwah ha ha ha!

[Steven Tribe]

This has been up before (many times!), but Seán in the UK has a complete copy of the Dallmeyer production/sales ledgers for Dallmeyer in the 19th century.
The 3B was such a standard studio "fixture", that it continued in production for a very long time with various designs of soft adjustment and, later, the machine type engraving. I only bother him with the first 20 years or so of production which usually have very incomplete engraved information and few catalogues.

[Steven Tribe]

Tim, 17036 started it's life in July 1871 as a size 1, wideangle landscape (patent) lens.
It was sold to Meagher ( a quality camera retailer).
It was born with rotary stops (according to Seán) - that is, the maximum aperture was heavily restricted (F15). Covers ( 1881 and 1890 catalogues). Covers a little over half plate. It is not one of a stereo pair as this is always given in the ledger entries if it is the case.
I have seen these with rotary stops but perhaps the extra heading in the 1881 catalogue gives the clue:

"The lenses are mounted in Rigid tubes or settings, with rotary stops".
This could be interpreted in 2 ways - rigid tubes without rotary stop OR rigid tubes, also with rotary stops?

[Tim Meisburger]

Thanks Steven. This information is really interesting. Obviously, the front lens is tightly constricted by its metal housing:



What may be less apparent from my previous picture is that there is also an internal constriction (like a brass washer) of a similar size just in front of the rear element (the rear element, unlike the front, is the full diameter of the barrel). I have not tried to punch that out, but I wonder if it is removable so that other, now lost, apertures could be inserted. Alternatively, if it is fixed, it would be relatively easy to make washer stops that would slip in behind the fixed stop.

[Tim Meisburger]

Eddie, that would keep us in beer a long time (or maybe not). I may sell it, but probably not before Christmas, when I am back in the US on holiday. Or I may never sell it, as the images from it look quite sweet. But if I keep it, I'll have to buy a decent 5x7 or 8x10.

Do you think I should polish it? Most of them I see are quite shiny. From the state of this one, I guess it is missing its varnish already (which looks present on the ends).