John Vilt 13x18 Portrait lens

[eddie]

do you also own this camera? it looks perfect....i want one....

[Steven Tribe]

The auction description said "reproduction". Really eccentric metal work!

[Sevo]

It's true that "Vilt" is a small village in the Dutch province of Limburg, but it's very small (it does not even have its own church), so I think it's not very plausible that the man (or his ancestors) we're looking for has a connection with that village.

Even though the majority of surnames obviously originated with places or professions, almost nobody has a surname which is traceable to an actual ancestors origin or profession - we usually only assume the latter by surname rather than vice versa.

Vilt is a Dutch word and place name, and as such has better roots there than in any other (likely) European language, which makes it most likely a Dutch name. And John, while no Dutch name proper, is at least Frisian and as such not uncommon in the Netherlands. Dutch names are all over Europe, though, and many a bearer of such a surname has no known connection to Dutch speaking regions any more, so that does not prove an origin.

The chances that a camera bought in the Netherlands from a maker with a Dutch name originated significantly elsewhere (i.e. beyond the related languages of Belgium or adjacent Germany) are rather slim. Finding a smaller maker or camera shop without knowing a place name might be near impossible though.

[goamules]

I'm going along with this tangent. Have you seen this website study? http://worldnames.publicprofiler.org/ You put in a name and it shows where the name occurs most, today. Vilt is showing up more in Hungary than anywhere else, though there are a lot in the Netherlands and Austria.

[Steven Tribe]

I still think he was located in the old Austria-Hungarian Empire. Vilt is a surname (now also in the US!) in the Bohemia/Moravia region that was! A search using modern day Austria wouldn't find him.
This was first posted about 30 minutes - but must have got lost!

[spotmatic]

Thanks for the most interesting links - again! Interestingly (but of course coincidentally) Joseph Petzval is from what then was Upper Hungary. That the name is possibly Hungarian doesn't make the research any easier, but it's one step closer to the truth

Maybe I should also check if there were Hungarian camera makers in the late 19th century...

[Sevo]

I still think he was located in the old Austria-Hungarian Empire. Vilt is a surname (now also in the US!) in the Bohemia/Moravia region that was! A search using modern day Austria woudn't find him.

I doubt Bohemia is the right direction. Slovakia would be a better bet, having a considerable Hungarian minority. The name is Hungarian - but the given name John would be very much out of line there (while it was used in parts of the Netherlands and Germany). Of course, he may have assumed a more international spelling of Johannes/János to promote his business abroad - but why did only a handful of objects survive if he was dealing at such a scope?

The name does not occur anywhere in http://www.photohistory.at/ or the documents linked there, and a early Austrian photography expert I am acquainted with does not know it either. Maybe digging through the registers of Budapest or Preßburg/Bratislava might turn him up, but the history of photography in imperial Austria is unusually well researched - there can't be that many unknown actors on that stage. If he really was from there and is not already known, he left so little traces that he'll be incredibly hard to identify.

The closest which we have to a location is "our" lens, recently sold in the Netherlands, and a camera offered used in 1908 in Northern France. The former of course is relatively vague - the majority of cameras should have been relocated over a considerable distance between then and now and lenses were sold and shipped over greater distances. But the latter makes it rather likely that the origin is somewhere within the major region - transport was disproportionally more expensive back then, and entire cameras did not that often get shipped across a continent unless they were very unusual in their properties or from a famous maker.

[Steven Tribe]

In addition there are these 2 (could have been the same set which went from one auction house to another in 1998). No photos available. Could also be one of those recently sold.

View Lot Details
Lot 804: A Mahogany Tailboard Camera with brass mounts the brass lens possibly adapted engraved John Vilt, Rapid Rectilinear, 18 x 18 10in high
A Mahogany Tailboard Camera with brass mounts the brass lens possibly adapted engraved John Vilt, Rapid Rectilinear, 18 x 18 10in high

Rosebery's: United Kingdom

Auction Date: 1998



View Lot Details
Lot 349: A mahogany continental pattern tailboard camera circa 1870 the wooden body with brass fittings, leather bellows and a John Vilt rapid rectilinear brass bound lens, lacking glass focusing screen and dark slides
A mahogany continental pattern tailboard camera circa 1870 the wooden body with brass fittings, leather bellows and a John Vilt rapid rectilinear brass bound lens, lacking glass focusing screen and dark slides

Sotheby's: United Kingdom

Auction Date: 1998

[spotmatic]

I've got the flu at the moment, so researching is a little bit hard for me. But based on the latest information I've tried to contact Michael Pritchard from the UK, Christie's The Fine Art Auction House's former Photographic Specialist. Much to my surprise he did reply. Based on his reply, which stated that he does not known any "Vilt" related to the UK photographic industry, coupled to the fact that all of the examples shown are continental pattern cameras and the lens marked 13x18(cm), it's clear that John Vilt is an European maker.

In my collection I have a 1991's book "Cameras from Belgium and Holland" and while many wooden field cameras/tailboards are shown, there's no mention whatsoever of "John Vilt".

So for now it seems a good idea to continue my research in mainland Europe. I'll not write off France at this moment, but central Europe seems to be the area I should investigate further. I'll try to contact someone from Hungary (Budapest) to see if he can help me with my research.