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Lorenzo field cabinet maker/dawkins photographers

suemalings

master brummie
I would like to find any information on Lorenzo Field. In 1881 he is listed on the census as living at 19 Mary Street, Ladywood. Occpuation Cabinet Maker employing 19 men and 7 girls. Various members of his family were also employed in the company.

The Fields and Dawkins are connected through marriage. In 1891 the Dawkins ran a company from 37 Cox Street West, as Photographic Apparatus Makers. I understand they were also photographers.



Can anyone offer any information?
 
Lorenzo Field married my wife's great grandfather William Dawkins' step sister and appears to have started William in his trade as photographic equipment maker. William and his family lived at 37 Cox Street West. I don't have anything on Lorenzo other than what's on the censuses but I have been researching the Dawkins'.

Look forward to hearing from you.

James
 
Sue
If you look at the photo below, the Solid Brass Ring Co was at no 37 Cox St West, so this is the works of Dawkins. the picture was taken about 1972, shortly before demolition
mike


16C__Cox_st_west_west_sideA.jpg
 
From the newspapers: In 1881, 1882 and 1884 Lorenzo Field registered several patents for improvements to folding chairs, and in 1881 registered a patent for graters of salt, bread , nutmegs, ginger & other materials.

In 1895 this appeared:-
Field1.jpg

You can check the latter for free on the London Gazette website. Hope that helps.

Maurice :cool:
 
Thanks for adding bits of information about him ...i'd also found census reports and newspaper archives useful as well to get more information on him and the business, but despite a relatively decent amount of facts ...there is not much concrete out there about him. I found a report in 1903 that said he was one of the top 3 camera makers in the country in the 1860's ... but have found virtually nothing about this side of his work ... which is rather infuriating as this is the area I want to find out about!!
 
TooLate,

I trawled through every newspaper entry mentioning Lorenzo Field, and there were no patent applications in connection with cameras and very little other info online. I can't spot anything on Birmingham Archives catalogue, but be aware that only 20% of the collections have been added to the online system as yet. You could try emailing them at [email protected] but you may have to wait quite a while for a reply during the pandemic. Otherwise photographic institutes or societies may know something. Good hunting.

Maurice :cool:
 
I did not think the Field's made the actual cameras, just the camera and jewellery cabinets. Lorenza does give his occupation as Photographic Artist on one census, then Cabinet Maker on another Jane West married Lorenzo in 1851. She was the daughter of Sarah West, who married William Dawkins. I think Jane was illegitimate (along with her brother) as I cannot find another marriage for Sarah. Sarah's father was Thomas West. There was a daughter too called Lorina who was involved in a fireworks accident and lost her sight.
 
Sue,

I think that your first sentence in post #13 is most probably correct. There is very little wood in old cameras, apart from tripods, and that leaves bellows, the mechanism and lenses, all of which are likely to be beyond the capacity of Lorenzo to supply. Looking through all the images of old cameras, the one with the most wood content I could find is shown below. I'm sure that as a major supplier of cameras he would be listed somewhere, if that was the case.

Maurice :cool:
 

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Two of his patents published in the london Gazette

20.7.1866
1786 . To Lorenzo Field, of Birmingham, in the county of Warwick, Cabinet Maker, for the invention of "improvements in photographic printing frames"
15.3.1878
818. To Lorenzo Field, of Birmingham, in .the county of Warwick, Photographic Cabinet Maker, for the invention of " improvements in folding or portable tents."
Possibly the portable tents were intended for use by photographers
 
It is surprising the number of cabinet makers in the country who turned into making cameras in the 1860s - it seemed quite a natural progression ... cameras of this age were more wooden boxes with mirrors or lenses inside... even with bellows, wood makes up most of the camera itself (an early wet plate camera as in the attached image is pretty much just a small well made wooden cabinet with a lens). I have found 3 separate very cursory mentions of him as a camera maker. There is a direct mention of him being a top maker (at that time though it wasnt really a profession though) . The Birmingham camera and photographic manufacturer James Ashford who had his own large business later on is mentioned as starting his career at Lorenzo Field making cameras... and I have found mention that Lorenzo Field made the camera that the famed photographer Napoleon Sarony took back to New York. The likelihood is that he really didnt consider camera making that big a thing at the time. Mike.... I had a look though other patents sites but completely forgot about the Gazette ... thanks for that... and photographic tents does seem very likely! ... As for the Dawkins side of things... it seems every Dawkins in the Birmingham area dabbled in making cameras...its hard trying to unravel which family is which especially since William was a common name ... I have a William Dawkins camera made by a different Dawkins family I think to the one who married into the Fields
 

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I worked at a Commercial Artists and Photographers in Birmingham in the late 1970's and we used plate cameras there, except for the Mamia. I remember there was the 10 x 8 and the 7 x 5 camera and the rails that the photographer used to move the camera close to the item being photographed. No shutter releases, just take off the lens cap and count! I learnt to process and print B&W photographs there using an enlarger. Now everyone is a photographer.
 
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