11" F8 brass lens by S. Mahadeo & Son??

[Raidahl]

Do anybody have any information about this kind of a manufacturer? The whole name is S. Mahadeo & Son, Welling Camera Works, Belgaum S.M.C

[Steven Tribe]

Note "camera works".
The use of English and the fact that Belgaum is in India suggests a pre-independence Wooden camera makers that has engraved someone else's RR.
The indian plate camera experts will contribute later.

[Steven Tribe]

You can find a lot with Google. There is still a Welling Photo Studio in Belgaum.

"
The original photo-enthusiast was Gajanan's grandfather, Srinivas Mahadeo Welling who, sometime in the 1850s, ventured into independent professional photography with a gifted camera. Trudging from place to place in a bullock-cart taking pictures, laden with family possessions and bulky photographic equipment of the wet-plate era, including the essential dark tent, he is reputed at one time to have strayed as far away as Karachi!

His son, Govind Srinivas, set up the first store — "Welling Camera Works" in Belgaum, which, while being a regular photo-store, manufactured cameras and enlargers till World War II.

A lovely seasoned-teakwood and brass sample is still present. Opening in Bangalore in 1903, the store was called "S. Mahadeo and Sons", in memory of its creative founder, until G.G. Welling took over its running and operations, putting into place practices of the trade that the store still follows: quiet courtesy and attention to the customer touchingly the foremost. "