Hello,
I'm trying to identify and old Gundlach Manhattan camera that was my late father's. I looked through a bunch of old Gundlach catalogs that are posted on line along with a lot of images of various cameras and can't find anything that quite matches. It looks like it may be some sort of hybrid of the Korona View and the Criterion View; the metal lens mounting brackets match them. The front lens frame swivels both up and down and side to side, but doesn't look like the Home Portrait or Pictorial View cameras. It has a much smaller wood frame arch below the lens bracket than I see on Criterions. The base is tapped for a tripod and there'a an additional base plate with the track to extend the bellows further. The frame is all wood, the handle strap is leather, and the bellows black. The gold decal on the lens bracket says "Gundlach Manhattan Optical Co. Rochester, N.Y." The only other markings I found were stamps in the underside of the wood bases (including the extension piece) that say "41".
The lens on it says "5x7 Ilex Photoplastic f4.5 Focus 10 1/2 Inches No291 Rochester, NY." The adjustable f-stop (?) range is 4.5 - 32 and the other gauge on the top of the lens goes from 1 - 100 and also has a "B" and a "T" set points after the 100. There's a separate lens that says only "Medium Softness" and has 133-25 scribed on the inner rim (no other markings). The film box that the other lens is in has a handwritten note by my late father that says "lens for view camera".
There are extra wood pieces that fit the front and others that fit the back brackets, along with four pieces with two removable metal plates (I'm guessing the photographic plates went between these) and two different size glass pieces that have metal or fabric (one each) side pieces that open up into a box. There's also a plunger to open the lens to take the picture, a couple of metal brackets that I have no clue what they're for, 12 rods with a hook and two clips each (that I guess are for drying processed photos), a black cloth (plastic lined) Ingento changing bag, a square 2' x 2' black cotton cloth (hood for the photographer?), and a Ries Camera Company Swing Head Model C wooden tripod with a 3-digit serial number (some of the plastic knobs have disintigrated; I'm guessing that it's from the 1930s or 40s).
I'd appreciate any help that you can provide in figuring out what this is. I can send photos of any of it, but please let me know (in lay terms) what to take pictures of.
Thank you, in advance,
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