"Cooke Lens Compendium" is finally published

[Barbara Lowry]

It took years of part time work to compile, but the Cooke Compendium is finally published at the Cooke Optics website under tab "About Us," then "Lens History."
Direct link: https://cookeoptics.com/t/compendium.html

This labor of love is dedicated to all large format photographers, especially those of you who have reached out to me via email asking for information about your particular lenses. It's because of you (and eBay) that I was able to gather enough serial numbers to provide a time line on a few given series of Cooke lenses to help you determine when your particular lens was made. The Cooke lens serial number books no longer exist before about 1940.

To my knowledge, this is now the most comprehensive resource for Cooke still lenses made from 1894 through the 1960s.

So, instead of emailing me and waiting for an answer, you can go direct to our website, locate your lens' series number and have all the information you need.

I hope you find it useful!

My Best, Barbara

[EdSawyer]

Well done! Thanks for the effort and info, most appreciated.

[Peter De Smidt]

Thank you!

[Dan Fromm]

Interesting. Barbara, I think I found an error. I b'lieve that the Ser. VIIb wide angle is in fact a four element in four groups double Gauss type, not a triplet as you stated.

[Tin Can]

This is great, I have 2 of these beauties.

Thank you Barbara

[BrianShaw]

Very nice... a link to save!

[karl french]

Very nice. Dan beat me to the Series VIIB issue. I have an 8" example. I've been tracking Cooke Portrait Anastigmat (and many others) over the last six months. It will be interesting to see how this information matches up to my list.

[Barbara Lowry]

I will check and see what I can find. What I CAN state is that it was made with 3 elements when it was first came out in 1924. Either that, or the it was a typo in the 1924 catalog.

[karl french]

Series VII was a three element design. It's my understanding that based on the limitations of such a design for a wide angle lens, they switched to a 'double-Gauss" 4 elements in 2 groups type of design with the VIIB.

[karl french]

Also, the "Pleasing Portraiture" brochure includes an insert introducing the Series XIV dated March 8th, 1933. Serial number 220,000ish? My 16.5" XIV is 221722.

[Mark Sawyer]

Barbara, you might want to add a listing for the Cooke Achromatic Portrait Lens.

[Barbara Lowry]

Karl - Your lens is now added to the XIV list and I changed the introduction date of this lens from c. 1935 to 1933. Thanks!

[Barbara Lowry]

Mark - If the Cooke Achromatic Portrait Lens had appeared in any Cooke catalogue, I would have included it. I'm pretty confident that we have all the Cooke lens catalogues that were published. Every lens that was offered to the general public is entered in the lens history section. There are lenses out there that don't appear in any catalogue. Usually, it's because they were military issue, or they were a one-off custom lens. What is the engraving on your lens?

[Mark Sawyer]

Hi, Barbara ~

On the Cooke Optics History page, (https://www.cookeoptics.com/t/history.html), it notes:

"Clarence White and Alfred Stieglitz, master impressionist photographers, among others, used a Taylor, Taylor & Hobson lens known as 'The Rapid View' or 'Portrait Lens' (brass lens engraved 'R.V.P.') produced by TT&H in the late 1880s. By 1913, because of the influence of these acclaimed photographers, the company received numerous requests for the RVP lens that predated the sharp Cooke Anastigmat. In response to an avalanche of requests, they reproduced the single lens RVP as the 'Cooke Achromatic Portrait Lens f/7.5' (as engraved) in four focal lengths: 10.5 inch for 4x5, 12 inch for 5x8, 15 inch for 6.5x8.5 and 18 inch for the 8x10 format. The 'new' versions of these lenses included an iris diaphragm.

A Cooke lens catalog of 1913 notes, 'Whoever expects sharp definition will be disappointed, but the photographer who desires softness and roundness coupled with fine modeling and a true perspective will be both astonished and delighted.'"

So it must be in that 1913 catalogue, at least. Dan Colucci's site puts it as being re-introduced in 1911. Since Clarence White, Alfred Stieglitz, and Gertrude Kasebier were among the users of this design, it seems worth mentioning. Here's the engraving on my 18-inch Cooke Achromatic Portrait:

[diversey]

Thank you for your work!
I have two lenses from Series IX, 30" and 48". I wonder it is possible to know how many lenses Cooke-TH produced in each type/series.

[Steven Tribe]

I havn't read everything, but your starting date for "Cooke" lenses is certainly open to discussion. I realise that for a company now called "Cooke", the date (1893) of T,T & H adoption of H.D. Taylor's patent from the Cooke telescope establishment, is a convenient choice! For years, T,T & H were makers of "Cooke" lenses (variations on the original triplet design) but the need to continue the adopted series names meant that non-triplets were included. More importantly, the RV and the various casket sets which included the RV lens, and which is exactly the same lens as the RVP and the later "Cooke" Achromatic Portrait lens, were available well before 1893.

In the Convertible section (another non-Cooke lens!), you quote "Moonrise Hernandez 1941". The next sentence about coating being an advantage is misleading (by proximity, at least) as coating was available only much later than 1941. There is a typo at the bottom "Novmeber".

The section of IIe suggests that coating of the three remaining soft models ended after 10th april 1947. Were coated after that date seems more likely.

[Barbara Lowry]

Hi Steven -- You are obviously a history buff, so I welcome you to take a look at https://cookeoptics.com/t/history.html. It will give you more detailed information about how the Cooke name was coined.

The "RV" and "RVP" lenses predated the Cooke brothers' and William Taylor's licensing agreement. The first Cooke lens was made in 1894 based on the 1893 Cooke Triplet Patent. The Cooke name was adopted from that point forward for all lenses made by the Leicestershire company, but ONLY if the lens design rose to the quality the company demanded. The name stuck, so to speak, beyond the original agreement to make the Cooke brothers happy. Note that the video lenses made by TH in the early 60s did not have the Cooke name on them; only the motion picture lenses and then only those whose quality was deemed good enough to carry the Cooke name (Gordon Cooke -- you can read about him at the link as well, if you have an interest.

The IIe, IId and VIa -- guessing that the catalogues had typos in them regarding the coating, because there is a 1951 lens out there that is coated. Good eye, Steven!

[Barbara Lowry]

Not easily. The serial number books no longer exist before 1940. None of the leather books after that date are digitized.

[William Whitaker]

Thank you Barbara for your hard work and for sharing it with us. And thank you as always for the many fine lenses. I'm sure we've all benefited from the many fine images they've produced even if we don't personally own that lens!

[David Lindquist]

And further regarding Adams's Cooke Series XV lens, the photograph "Sunset, Carmel, California" with the comment "Coated lens minimized flare." also appears in the first edition, March 1948, of _Camera and Lens_. I've wondered did he have this lens coated post World War II (when this service seemed to be commonly available)? And is it the case that doing a proper job of coating requires high vacuum and temperature such that a cemented lens like the Series XV would have had to have been"un-cemented" first? Just curious.

David

[Barbara Lowry]

Great! I didn't miss it after all. It looks like I put it in the general history section years ago.

[David Lindquist]

And my thanks to you Barbara and your company for making this information available. Industrial history, albeit restricted to a few specific areas, is a particular interest of mine.

David

[Mark Sampson]

Ms. Lowry- many thanks for doing all this research, and publishing it for everyone to see. It's an invaluable piece of photographic history that enriches us all- even those of us who do not use Cooke lenses. ...And I'm sure you knew that you'd find some dedicated historian/editors on this site, too.

[Tri Tran]

Thanks Ms Lowry for your time and valuable information . I'm a big fan of the Cooke's lenses. Your input is much appreciated.

[Steve Goldstein]

The text under the Series XV makes mention of the Series XVa, but there's no other information about it. I also didn't see any mention of the PS945. Shouldn't these also be part of the history?

[Steven Tribe]

Hi Steven --


The IIe, IId and VIa -- guessing that the catalogues had typos in them regarding the coating, because there is a 1951 lens out there that is coated. Good eye, Steven!

Barbara,
I have a real problem with your quoting from the commentary part of old catalogues - that are obviously in error in some instances - without this being remarked on. All "Cooke" lenses after serial number around 290,000 are coated (unless someone has had a special order). I have seen approximately seven series IIe lenses after this serial number into the 1950's - and all have the same coating ex workshop.

Whilst I appreciate your efforts, just about all this data (and without the testimonials and sales pitch!) on series is available in one of the better sections, on T,T & H in the Lens Vade Mecum from 1999. They mention that the extensive T,T & H archive was deposited at the "Snibston Discovery Park" in 1998, perhaps at the same time as the Cooke Management Buy-Out? Is this perhaps a red herring and there is nothing of relevance there?

[John Layton]

Barbara,
Its been awhile - hello! Just so you know...right off the bat - that I'm still adding fontina to my pizzas!

Sadly I must also relate that my L-45A is more or less a bust at this point (despite some very enlightening intersections with Linhof and Sinar) - but I still press the five prototypes (one is now a 5x7) into service regularly!

But what a great thing that you and Les have done...bravely (very bravely!) resurrecting the old Cooke factory to carry on such a noble tradition. How can we ever thank you for this?

Oh...you are a member here - I'll shoot you a PM!

[MMELVIS]

Very nice work putting all this information together

[Kristoff]

Have looked but cant find my Anastigmat special.
Second one i have had!
5 inch 1:4.5
Serial number 286681
Can anyone tell me what its for?
Medium format or cinematography?
Thanks

[Colin D]

Greatly appreciated.

[mhayashi]

The original compendium page has been gone for a while.
I have found the new page here, but the pictures are gone.

https://cookeoptics.com/compendium/

Hopefully Cooke would make the page as good as the original.

[Vaidotas]

Yrs, it’s gone more than for six months, I was looking for info comparison with Ivan Rose writing about TTH in the last D’Agostini book. Both sources are far away from completion with all respect to work done by authors.

[mhayashi]

Yrs, it’s gone more than for six months, I was looking for info comparison with Ivan Rose writing about TTH in the last D’Agostini book. Both sources are far away from completion with all respect to work done by authors.
Yes, that GB book is about 19th century lenses. Cooke lenses flourished from 20th century, although I expected much more from that book….

[Mark Sawyer]

The Compendium just starts with "The first Cooke lens was made from an elegantly simple design, patented in 1893, known as 'The Cooke Triplet Patent'.” It's worth noting that Taylor, Taylor & Hobson made camera lenses from 1886, before they made lenses under the Cooke name, and made some lenses without the Cooke name well after 1893.

The Compendium does seem to be missing some lenses of significance, like the Cooke Achromatic Portrait Lens that was favored by Stieglitz during his Pictorialist period.

[mhayashi]

Yes, I shall add this great thread link here as two cents….
https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?94655-Rapid-View-Portrait-%28RVP%29-Pictorial-lens

[bmikiten]

Is there a current link for this? The original one doesn't resolve to anything but the home page and the About Us has changed.

[mhayashi]

See the #31 link above.

[bmikiten]

See the #31 link above.

Thanks.

Brian