Fake 1850s Voigtlander lens

[CCHarrison]

See an 1850s Voigtlander fake !

http://antiquecameras.net/blog.html

Dan

[pierre506]

Interesting found ~

[Steven Tribe]

The overall impression of the engraving is quite good - but the errors start with the first N with a very short loop and minus the underlined o. And they continue throughout. Apart from the wrong addresses, the poor "&" sticks out a mile. And so on. He/She obviously had a nice early "Wien" Voigtländer to use as a model.

[alex from holland]

and how about the misspelling : Sohn and Shon.....

[Ari]

What? Fakery in the photographic world? Scandalous!

[goamules]

Great find still Dan, not quite as good as a real one, but more rare! Wonder how they got the engraving done, maybe at a silversmith or something. I still bet it's a 1860s, or 1870s lens, don't you?

[Steven Tribe]

Just a second!

OK, the glass combination is obviously incorrect now, but there is a possibility that this is one of these Voigtländers which lost their identity when the Waterhouse "Square" was cut out of the brass sleeve. We have all seen examples of this when the cut-out has been attached as a patch on the sleeve or just a bit of the engraving is left . Perhaps the engraver had this cut-out in front of him when giving back the identity. It would interesting to check whether the glass diameter corresponds to one of the very few Petzval sizes ( 42, 55, 66, 81mm) in Voigtländers first series?

[Tim Deming]

I've seen half a dozen or so fake Voigtlander brass lenses over the years. One even had half the original Darlot engravings still on the lens!

Cheers

Tim

[CCHarrison]

I've updated the post a bit.

I will have to check measurements on the lens... it does have a patina that to me, indicates this is a lens from the mid 19th century...


http://antiquecameras.net/blog.html


Dan

[paulr]

I wonder how common these fakes are. A 19th century counterfeit might be more collectible than the real thing (!)