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Lot Essay
John Henry Dallmeyer was born in 1830 in Loxton, Westphalia, and was apprenticed to an optician in Osnabrück. He emigrated to England in 1851 and joined the British lens making firm of Andrew Ross. He married Ross's second daughter, Hannah, and was left one-third of Ross's considerable estate on his death in 1859. The following year Dallmeyer established his own business and introduced improvements to photographic lenses taking out several patents. On his death in 1883 the firm continued under his son Thomas Rudolph Dallmeyer (1859-1906).
Dallmeyer's firm was primarily lens makers but it developed a photographic side to the business retailing cameras and associated photographic equipment. They probably bought in many of the cameras sold under their name and information in the Dallmeyer archives suggests that their early wood cameras were made by George Hare. This practice seems to have continued and later cameras such as their Long Focus (see lot 81) and Snapshot cameras (see lot 12) were made by others.
This design of front focusing camera was introduced by the London photographer F. R. Window in 1861 when he suggested a new arrangement for the sliding box camera. The conventional camera was reversed so that the inner box carried the lens panel and moved within the larger rear box. Window's design gave a steady and easily focused camera and remained popular across all formats during the 1860s. Dallmeyer introduced his Universal camera in 1861 for plates 7¼ x 4½ inches which allowed for both stereoscopic and single exposures on a single plate. Taylor suggests that the camera was designed by Dallmeyer partly to obviate the need for his friend George Washington Wilson to take two cameras to make stereoscopic views. The camera was also known as the Wilson camera. It was originally introduced with Petzval-type portrait lenses and according to Smith 'it was one of the earliest cameras to have interchangeable diaphragms known as Waterhouse stops'. According to Dallmeyer serial number information these lenses date from circa 1868.
The flap shutter which fitted the front of the stereoscopic lenses was suggested by George Washington Wilson, the Aberdeen-based photographer with whom Dallmeyer had a close friendship and professional relationship. The shutter was a simple mahogany block which pushed on the to the lenses with a front mahogany or metal flap that was raised and lowered by rotating a screw.
The Photographic News (26 September 1862) carried an examination of Dallmeyer's binocular camera and lenses by Dr van Monckhoven. This also appeared in his Traité de Photographie (fourth edition). He describes the camera as having 'well merited success in England and in Germany' and 'It is with this instrument that the instantaneous views of the Boulevards of Paris have been secured by Messrs Ferrier and Soulier [using Dallmeyer's lenses].'
Dallmeyer's firm was primarily lens makers but it developed a photographic side to the business retailing cameras and associated photographic equipment. They probably bought in many of the cameras sold under their name and information in the Dallmeyer archives suggests that their early wood cameras were made by George Hare. This practice seems to have continued and later cameras such as their Long Focus (see lot 81) and Snapshot cameras (see lot 12) were made by others.
This design of front focusing camera was introduced by the London photographer F. R. Window in 1861 when he suggested a new arrangement for the sliding box camera. The conventional camera was reversed so that the inner box carried the lens panel and moved within the larger rear box. Window's design gave a steady and easily focused camera and remained popular across all formats during the 1860s. Dallmeyer introduced his Universal camera in 1861 for plates 7¼ x 4½ inches which allowed for both stereoscopic and single exposures on a single plate. Taylor suggests that the camera was designed by Dallmeyer partly to obviate the need for his friend George Washington Wilson to take two cameras to make stereoscopic views. The camera was also known as the Wilson camera. It was originally introduced with Petzval-type portrait lenses and according to Smith 'it was one of the earliest cameras to have interchangeable diaphragms known as Waterhouse stops'. According to Dallmeyer serial number information these lenses date from circa 1868.
The flap shutter which fitted the front of the stereoscopic lenses was suggested by George Washington Wilson, the Aberdeen-based photographer with whom Dallmeyer had a close friendship and professional relationship. The shutter was a simple mahogany block which pushed on the to the lenses with a front mahogany or metal flap that was raised and lowered by rotating a screw.
The Photographic News (26 September 1862) carried an examination of Dallmeyer's binocular camera and lenses by Dr van Monckhoven. This also appeared in his Traité de Photographie (fourth edition). He describes the camera as having 'well merited success in England and in Germany' and 'It is with this instrument that the instantaneous views of the Boulevards of Paris have been secured by Messrs Ferrier and Soulier [using Dallmeyer's lenses].'