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View Full Version : Instrument makers Kemp & Co. from Edinburgh - any info?



Ron (Netherlands)
3-Aug-2020, 05:38
Just acquired a nice camera made or traded presumably by Kemp & Co from Edinburg. It seems to me that my camera very strongly resembles a type of camera made by Butcher & Sons, like this one (not my camera, just a picture from the internet):
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/48/57/ab/4857abb9e0036869c647e2893d5ef0c6.jpg

On the net I found the below messages/advertisements regarding Kemp & Co. that stem from the Scottish post office directories, but no further info on the photographic equipment they sold/traded. Does anyone have any additional info, like catalogues and the like?

from the 1869-1870 directory:
https://deriv.nls.uk/dcn3/8512/85124947.3.jpg

already mentioned in the 1850-1851 directory:
https://deriv.nls.uk/dcn3/8313/83132177.3.jpg

It seems that currently the University of Edinburgh is settled on Kemp & Co's former premises.

Steven Tribe
8-Aug-2020, 05:13
I didn’t know about Kemp & Co. But they Seem to have been quite succesful - almost parallel with the other scottish Company, Lizars. But they specialised as suppliers to hospitals, rather than the new hobby of photography.

Ron (Netherlands)
10-Aug-2020, 05:19
I didn’t know about Kemp & Co. But they Seem to have been quite succesful - almost parallel with the other scottish Company, Lizars. But they specialised as suppliers to hospitals, rather than the new hobby of photography.

Thanks Steven, indeed they seems to have chosen a different kind of (major) trade....
and I'm quite confident my camera must be a rebadged British made camera by Butcher since it is very much alike The National.