Unknown Patent Reflex

[photax]

Hi !

I found this two beauties today as bargains at the flea market. A English 1912 Houghton Ensignette No2 strut-camera for roll film with brass body ( needed some cleaning ). The second one is a early SLR for glass plates named “ Patent Reflex “. It is obviously a German camera with a Gauthier Pronto shutter and a focussing Meyer Görlitz Trioplan 1:4.5 F=10cm lens. I would date this camera to the mid 1920`s. It was in a “very bad ” condition, because the camera spent decades in a basement, but I knew the cleaning with soap and water will cost me hardly five minutes . The shutter release was locked and I told the seller, that this item is not working at all. So I bought a inexpensive “defective” camera in bad condition ;D. Now it looks nice and is completely working ( simply unlocked the shutter release ). First I thought it will be a K.W. model, but it is`nt.

Does anybody know this model, or the manufacturer ? It is marked with “ Patent ST Reflex “ ( last picture ). I have no manufacturer on my mind that would match “ST”. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[PeterW]

Hi Mik,

Two very nice cameras - now they're cleaned!

I'm fairly sure your ST Reflex was made in the last part of the 1920s, continuing possibly into the early 1930s, by Schmitt & Thienemann in Dresden.

S&T made several box-style plate reflexes, usually for 6.5 by 9 cm plates and differing only in detail. The only two I can recall are the ST Patent Reflex and the ST Patent Sport Reflex

I'm not sure about the difference between the two. They usually had 100mm or 105mm Trioplan lenses in dial-set Pronto shutters.

I don't know what happened to the company.

PeterW

[Just Plain Curt]

Hi Mik,
Beautiful restoration/cleaning job on these old classics. Wish we found anything similar locally. Best I've found was a Futura but nothing much else besides SLRs lately.

[alexkerhead]

Super cool camera!

The Patent S is stellar!

[photax]

Peter, I knew you would discover the manufacturer . Have many thanks for the research ! Never heard of “Schmitz&Thienemann” before, but there had been so many German camera manufacturers from this period, even in Dresden. As I started my target-oriented search, I found out that the Patent Sport Reflex is nearly similar to the Patent Reflex. One German catalogue says this models had been built from 1926 to 1931 and are quite rare ( estimated ca. 250.- Euro/ 370.- USD ). Another one mentioned 1923 to 1929.

Curt, there is a large weekly flea market in the Viennese city, where you can still find such items, especially on a not so frequented cold winter day. At midsummer most of the sellers try to rip off the Japanese and American tourists with dubious items. But at that time there are many markets in the environs, where you can meet sellers from the Czech Republic or Hungary for instance. These people did not cast away anything for the past 100 years. I once bought a Kodak No1 Folding Pocket, built ca.1904 from a Polish seller. He confirmed me that the camera was used by his family till the mid 1970s and he himself has replaced the broken winding knob in the 1950s. Unbelievable ! And we replace our digital cameras every five years...

MIK