What is this?

[hurriken]

Hi my name is Ken and I live near Chicago. I am not a camera collecter but I do have my Dad's old Kodak Retina that he bought in the early 1950's. I'm here because my son-in-law found something while fishing and I think it has something to do with cameras. It looks like a lipstick container but it has a hole on each end. On the bottom it has printed "BROWNIE MFG. CO. NYC". I know Brownie made cameras in the 50's and 60's but what this thing would be for I have no clue. At first we though it was a bullet casing and that it said BROWNING but it is clearly BROWNIE.

Any ideas?

[John Farrell]

Hi there, Ken. It looks like the lipstick container from a "Kodak Coquette", a folding camera that came with a matched lipstick and powder compact, made in the early 1930s.

[hurriken]

John, I think you nailed it. It looks a lot like this one but the picture isn't very big.
kodak.digitalfx.tv/html/vanens.html

Very interesting, historically speaking, I had no idea they made things like that. I assumed that until the 1940's cameras were owned by professionals and hobbyists.

Thanks for the help.

[SidW]

You certainly seem to have solved it, otherwise I was going to suggest a lens cleaning brush that pops out just like lipstick. Mine is smooth chrome finish without the fancy decorations of the "Coquette" real lipstick.

[pompiere]

Nov 26, 2009 20:08:35 GMT -5 SidW said:

You certainly seem to have solved it, otherwise I was going to suggest a lens cleaning brush that pops out just like lipstick. Mine is smooth chrome finish without the fancy decorations of the "Coquette" real lipstick.

I almost missed one of those cleaning brushes because I didn't know what it was. I was buying a camera and accessories at Goodwill and there was a lipstick tube in the bottom of the basket. Not wanting someone else's lipstick, I left it there, but the clerk threw it in the bag anyway. When I opened the tube, I was pleasently surprised.