The early Voigtlander Petzvals are well worth what they cost but paying more than four times what I have paid for other "equivalent" seems to encounter a personal deep psychological barrier.
I have been able to put off the acquisition by using the argument that they are difficult to work with because of the non-matching visual and chemical focus - but the money involved has been the real problem.
I have registered the other Viennese makers of the 1840's and 1850's - many of whom where either Voigtlander's competitors (and enemies!) or ex-collaborators or employees. They were all smaller manufacturers, who didn't seem to benefit from Voigtlander's exit to Braunschweig. The names are:
Dietzler
Weingartshofer
Waibl
Sturzenhoffer
Prokesch
Dietzler seems to have made quite a few lenses and has been mentioned here a few times. I have followed a few auctions of these without being lucky.
There is a very attractive sequence of these lenses from Vienna on small specialist website Photohistory.at under Objektive 1841.
Which brings us to EBay 261339586287. Which was a Franz Xavier Waibl 3 1/2" Petzval from about 1855. The lens has a few obvious problems, apart from the fact that the lister standard items show a odd interest! Certainly Bupapest is a likely ending-up place for a lens from the Austro-Hungarian empire's capital. I'll report back whether my need for an early Petzval has been satiated!
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