I picked up, cheaply enough, what I thought was probably a Rapid Rectilinear lens by C Burr, of London. With a little persuasion it disassembled and after having cleaned decades of caked on muck off the lenses, it turned out to be relatively unblemished with just a couple of very minor scratches. I put it on a camera and cut out a black plastic stop just to try it with. Focal length (stop to film plane) is about 13". Wide open it covered 10" x 8" so I transferred it to a 12" x 10" camera and it still appears to cover this too, even wide open, so obviously greater stopped down. After a bit of research I'm wondering whether its not what I thought. It appears that C Burr was a lens maker (as opposed to retailer) by 1859 - to the trade according to an advert. About twenty years later his lenses were still being advertised, but by a sole agent (Abrahams in London) so he doesn't appear to have been retailing them direct even then. Does anyone have any further information? As ever these small lens makers do seem to be poorly documented. A photo is attached and it is about 2" in diameter and 2 1/2" from flange area to the front. It appears to be simply but well made and the threads are very well cut. Any information would be of interest.
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