E & T Underwoond and Kodak Authographic.

[lloydy]

A friend of mine said he had an old woodworking lathe I could have so we went into the depths of his shed to haul it out. While we were in there I saw these.


The Kodak Authographic is fairly common, I have a vest pocket version, but this one is quite tidy and complete.

Then I found this....





which appears to be in remarkable condition. I know nothing about this kind of camera and Google throws up little information.
Is it rare or valuable, or just a common plate camera?
The Underwood has it's original wooden tripod, another lens, and a box with some 'accessories' - I need to go back and list them properly.
There's also a big box of glass negatives.

I made him store them in the house, so that's something!

[Stephen]

The Underwood Bros, E&T, were making cameras in Birmingham, UK, between 1885 - 1905. So it is earlier than 1905, and quite a find in good condition. A parts or restoration one, sold on Ebay for £51 recently.

historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium2/pm.cgi?action=app_display&app=datasheet&app_id=1321

Gives pretty full details on Historic cameras site, with picture. The shutter on the one in the photos is more modern addition , they had a behind the lens shutter and a plain board to take most simple lenses. Good quality maker.

Stephen.

[Doug T.]

SWEET

[lloydy]

Thanks, that's interesting. I don't think he'd sell it as it's a family piece, but it's still nice to know that it's a decent quality camera. From what I can tell nothing is missing or broken either.
Any idea's about the era of that lens that's on it?

[Stephen]

I would assume the early 20's for the lens/shutter, without further research, it is not original, the camera was totally universal in taking any known lens as built, in that it had it own patented behind the lens shutter, which has probably been removed, it might still be there. The viewer on the top is also not original. Both the viewer and the shutter probably came from a folding camera, looks to be German, maybe Goertz.
Stephen.

[Stephen]

The answer is in the picture, the shutter is a Lukas 11, which was from Aldis, a British lens and shutter maker, who became part of Ensign cameras, but were involved later with Rank Aldis.
Stephen.