Introduced in 1908 the BJPA described the camera: as 'an instrument which permits of lenses from the shortest to the longest focus which in reason would be used on a plate of a given size... The whole instrument, we would say, is one to which a critical user of hand cameras can take no exception, and we ourselves have been satisfied that no better instrument of its kind for hand-camera photography and for the most difficult class of subjects for which a stand camera is used could be devised'.

The Gandolfi firm began making cameras in 1885 when Louis Gandolfi, who had previously been apprenticed to a cabinet maker, started the business. Other family members joined the firm which remained in family hands until the early 1980s. Although their products were not especially innovative the firm was busy making camera for other firms, selling it's own products and incorporating customer's specific requirements into their designs.