Prototype model reflex camera
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more A unique prototype Kershaw camera
Prototype model reflex camera

Details
Prototype model reflex camera
A. Kershaw & Sons, Leeds; wood-body, with simulated leather body covering and silver painted trim, metal fittings and lens mount
Provenance
A. Kershaw & Sons Ltd., Leeds, to Mr Dick Bedford, and thence by direct descent to the vendor.
Literature
Michael Pritchard, 'A History of A. Kershaw and Sons Limited 1888 to the Present' in Photographic Collector vol. 4(1), Spring 1983, pp. 50-63.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

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Lot Essay

Dick Bedford (1915-1974), the father of the vendor, was a precision engineer and joined the Leeds-based Kershaw company in the 1930s. During the war he worked on making bombsights for the goverment which had required the company to turn to munitions production. After the war he worked for Frank Curzon the head of the engineering department. Bedford ended up working on fibre optics before being made redundant from Kershaws in 1959.

According to former employees around 1947 Kershaws began to develop a 2¼ inch square twin lens to rival the Rolleiflex. It also had two or three other prototypes in development of a 120-rollfilm single lens reflex camera which was to have been called the Kerflex. The designer was Bert Husband. The camera never went into production as Rank, which controlled the Kershaws, moved the company into producing equipment that would support its cinema business.

Christie's would like to thank Pam Caudwell for making her Kershaw researches available.

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