Lancaster makers of cameras

[Heartland]

Attached is an 1896 image of an advert published in and London & North Western Guide

 

[Stokkie]

J. Lancaster and Son, optician and camera maker, of Irving Street, Birmingham.

Made wooden view cameras, among them several cameras for smaller plate formats.

• The 1/4-plate Instantograph was one of the better known.
• A very special model was the Gem Apparatus of 1880, a camera with twelve lenses to shoot the same subject twelve times at once.

Lancaster made its own lenses and had patents for shutters. Other products were magic lanterns. When Lancaster made metal cameras, they were special ones ,such as the telescopic Patent Watch Camera in pocket watch format. Source: Grace's Guide

 

[Vivienne14]

They seem to have had quite a long history.


Source: British Newspaper Archive

 

[mikejee]

From a link in another thread. A list of Lancaster cameras , and the information that the company was founded in 1835 and ceased trading in 1955.

https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/Lancaster/

 

[Vivienne14]

Some background to the Lancaster family. Source: British Newspaper Archive