THE PRESTWICH MANUFACTURING CO., Tottenham

Details
THE PRESTWICH MANUFACTURING CO., Tottenham
A 35mm. mahogany-body hand-cranked patent Prestwich 1897-model cinematographic camera with brass hand-crank, epicyclic movement, a brass bound J. H. Dallmeyer Special B 2 inch lens no. 57006 and cap, and applied labels The Prestwich Camera. Patent and The Prestwich Manufacturing Co., 744 High Rd., Tottenham, London.
Literature
Barnes (1983), Pioneers of the British Film, p. 117-122.
Barnes (1983), The Rise of the Cinema in Great Britain, p. 52, 55-57.
Further details
See colour plate 2

Lot Essay

The Dallmeyer lens dates to January 1897. The Dallmeyer serial numbering for 1897 began at 57,000.
Barnes (1983) describes the Prestwich company as 'one of the most proficient makers of cinematographic equipment in England'. This model (also known as the Moto-Photograph) was the first to be offered by the Prestwich company and was also sold by W. C. Hughes as the Moto Bijou Living Picture camera.
The camera seems to have first appeared in April-May 1897 and was advertised by Marion & Co. in the British Journal Photographic Almanac 1898, p. 15, as 'the most efficient and most portable on the market...It is a beautiful[ly] finished piece of mechanism, made entirely in London of the best materials'.

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