Originally Posted by
BarryS
Hi Mark--welcome to the forum! You have a beautiful old Century Studio camera. It looks like it dates between 1900 (the founding of Century camera) and 1907 (when Eastman bought the company). The finish doesn't look too bad. I see some crazing, which isn't unusual for a finish of that age, but my inclination would be to do a light cleaning rather than a full strip and refinish of the camera. I'd have a professional bellows made for such a nice camera (from Custom Bellows UK or Turner bellows, and in the original black).
You also have some beautiful Voightlander & Sohn Euryscop lenses (the two lenses in front) and a nice portrait (Petzval) lens in back. Does the big portrait lens also have the Voightlander engraving? The lenses are easily worth several times the value of the camera, and they're in marvelous condition. I'm wondering about the brass hood (?) next to the portrait lens--haven't seen one of those before. The glass lens elements should be gently cleaned with a good lens cleaning fluid and soft clean lens tissues.
You can buy some Packard shutters for your lenses. There are simple pneumatic shutters that cam be mounted to the back of the lens boards. It looks like you have a box of lens boards and camera backs. All in all, a beautiful setup!
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