Lens Maker Auzoux

[Neil Purling]

Auzoux Rectiligne No3 No11,653. Requires Waterhouse Stops.
I have e-mailed seller for detailed information & images of the lens. No idea of focal length. S' probably going to be f8 or therabouts
I don't know much about the maker. A on-line text-only version of the VM doesnt have much to say of the company. There were three incarnations: Auzoux & Co Auzoux et Francais then Francais. I dunno when they started or ended making lenses.
If they had a short life it suggests they were not successful. Googling the name Auzoux has brought up another person? The same surname but they were a notable maker of anatomical & botanical models, not lenses.

[Petzval Paul]

I believe that they started (as Auzoux) making lenses in 1858. There is very little information about them available, as you have discovered, but they were basically a quality French manufacturer whose lenses closely resembled any of the other makers in that country: Darlot, Gasc & Charconnet, Lerebours et Secretan, Hermagis, Derogy, etc. Some lenses are so similar between the various makers that one would have to wonder if they were all produced in whole, or at least part, by Darlot. That's my take on it, anyway.

Sorry I couldn't tell you more.

- Paul

[Neil Purling]

If they were a quality maker then surely they would have left some records. Even if I can't relate the number of my lens to a date, or anything like that. I wondered about when the name was Auzoux, then when he was joined by Francais and finally when Francais ceased lens manufacture.

[Petzval Paul]

I remember hearing that it was very soon after the formation of the original Auzoux company, like within a few years or a decade at the most.

Really, very few companies back then have records intact. The only one I can think of is Dallmeyer, some of whose records are still available.

[Philippe Grunchec]

More information here:
http://lereve-edition.fr/fr/dossiers-collectors-1-a-10/aivas-bellieni-dossier-collector