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    Sale 9892

    MOTION PICTURE CAMERAS

    London, South Kensington

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    20 July 2004

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    • 1896 Lumière Cinématographe Ou
    Lot 56

    1896 Lumière Cinématographe Outfit

    Price realised

    GBP 85,890

    Estimate

    GBP 30,000 - GBP 40,000

    Follow lot

    1896 Lumière Cinématographe Outfit
    comprising:

    Cinématographe camera no. 212
    J. Carpentier, Paris; 35mm. hand-cranked sprocketless movement with double-pin action and internal film-advance, sprung glass pressure plate in hinged film gate stamped 87, brass projection lens, brass top-mounted spool-frame, crank and walnut case of dovetailed construction with hinged front and back and anodised brass plate with white-filled engraving Cinématgraphe, Auguste et Louis Lumière, Brevetè S.G.D.G., J. Carpentier. Ingénieur Constructeur, Paris.

    Cinématographe camera no. 264
    J. Carpentier, Paris; 35mm. hand-cranked sprocketless movement with double-pin action and internal film-advance, sprung glass pressure plate in hinged film gate stamped 39, brass top-mounted spool frame, crank and walnut case of dovetailed construction with anodised brass plate with white-filled engraving, hinged back and front with brass screw-thread fitting for an Hermagis Objectif Cinéma lens no. 49593 with rack-and-pinion focusing and a separate brass rack-and-pinion focusing lens barrel with three interchangeable lenses: a Foyer 120mm. lens, an Hermagis Cinema Objectif 150mm. lens no. 115381 and an Hermagis Objectif Cinema 170mm. lens no. 51751.

    each camera in a pine storage box with carrying handle and fitted compartments for crank and six films in the lid.

    Accessories:
    A Lumière-type walnut tripod with velvet-lined film guide; a stained pine fitted outfit box containing: a Lumière film-winder with painted-green open-frame pulley, brass crank, velvet-lined film guide and shaped walnut base; two walnut external single-spool film magazines; a walnut external double-spool film magazine; and two anodised brass internal single-spool magazines; four boxes of glass pressure plates;

    Film:
    Eight 35mm. films in tins (five of the tins Lumière); two loose films; and fragments

    Provenance

    Eduardo Jimeno Correas, Spain, and thence by family descent to the vendor.

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    Literature and exhibited

    Literature

    Brian Coe (1981), The History of Movie Photography, pp. 68-72.
    Agustín Sánchez Vidal (1994), Jimeno, y Los Orígenes del Cine en Zaragoza.
    http://www.mediasalles.it/ybkcent/ybk95_e.htm


    Lot Essay


    France, 1895:
    The Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, were the first to achieve a satisfactory system for taking and projecting moving pictures made on a celluloid strip. Their invention, the Cinématographe, became the world's first commercially successful motion picture camera. The brothers began work designing a camera in 1894, after seeing a piece of Edison Kinetoscope film which had just arrived in Paris. Their successful device with a mechanism based on a sewing machine movement was patented in France on 13 February 1895. The machine combined both a camera and a projector and the perforated film was moved intermittently by a claw mechanism.

    Initially the invention was kept secret and only demonstrated at private screenings, where it met with great enthusiasm. Although originally produced in late 1895 in a batch of just ten, these first models were prototypes for trial purposes and not available for sale. It was not until 1896 that the Cinématographe went on sale to the public. The following serial numbers correspond approximately to the years of production; all models were based on the original 1895 patent until a new model was introduced towards the end of 1898: 1895 - nos. 1-10; 1896 - nos. 10-250; 1896-1898 - nos. 250-450.

    Spain, 1896:
    Cinema was introduced to Spain in 1896 by the Lumières agent and film maker Alexandre Promino, who had arrived the month before. Promino presented a programme of films on 14 May 1896 that had first been shown in Paris the previous December in a public screening that took place at the Hotel de Rusia, 34 Carrera de San Jeronimo, Madrid, where it ran continuously.
    Among the spectators at this first screening was Eduardo Jimeno Peromarta, an eboniste born in Zaragoza in 1846, and his son Eduardo Jimeno Correas, born in 1870. Travelling showmen who combined panorama, automata and later cinema in their displays, the Jimenos ran a permanent waxwork booth and miniature theatre called Salon Meravillas in Glorieta Square, Bilbao. 1896 was an important year for the family, as Eduardo Jimeno Correas would leave the largest theatre in Zaragoza to tour Spain with his father's Travelling Panoramic Exhibition.
    The magic and novelty of moving pictures entranced the Jimenos who were keen to incorporate this new invention in their show. After an unsuccessful tour using a projector (more expensive but less satisfactory than the Cinématographe) purchased from Vernée in Paris, Jimeno Permarta travelled to the Lumières' own factory in Lyon in 1896 to purchase the genuine device. Their first screening with a Lumière projector took place before an audience of two hundred in Burgos in September 1896, followed by performances in Seville, Corunna and, on 15 December, at the Napoleon Photographic Studio, Barcelona.

    However, it was in his native Zaragoza in October 1896 that Jimeno Correras made what is believed to be the first Spanish film, a Lumière-style 'short' entitled Salida de Misa de Doce del Pilar de Zaragoza ('Exit from the Midday Mass at the Virgin of the Pillar, Zaragoza'). The historic film was first shown in the town where it was made on 11 October 1896. An original print is included with the outfit offered here. The sequence was filmed again the following Sunday, 18 October, and projected with the same the camera - presumbably Cinématographe No. 212 - using a projection stand and a standard lamphouse for the light source.

    The Jimenos' Salon Meravillas, relocated and re-named the Jimenographe, became the first permanent cinema in Spain. In 1899 the Jimeongraphe became the Palacio de Proyecciones Animadas and, after various name and address changes, it continues in business today as the Proyecciones Cinesa at 136 Fuencarral, Madrid - ten doors away from its location a century earlier. Of more than twenty-six cinemas listed in Madrid in 1907, many were operated by the Jimenos, whose example was to inspire other pioneers in the fledgling Spanish film industry.

    The films offered in this lot are mainly from the Lumière catalogue on Lumière perforated stock dating between 1895-1900. Of the two cameras, Cinématographe No. 212 was probably purchased first and used as both camera and projector until Cinématographe No. 246 was acquired for filming, which may account for the greater wear on the earlier camera. The serial numbers of both cameras indicate manufacture in 1896.

    Jimeno Correas is shown with a Cinématographe (apprently one of the two offered here) in Vidal (p. 226).

    Other information

    Special Notice

    No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis


    Pre-Lot Text

    An important and historic group of Lumière equipment
    formerly owned by Eduardo Jimeno Correas,
    a pioneer of Spanish cinema

    Post Lot Text

    END OF SALE

    Christie's next sales of
    Cameras and Photographic Equipment
    take place on
    14 September and 16 November 2004

    For further information contact
    Michael Pritchard on +44 (0)20 7752 3279
    or email: mpritchard@christies.com
    www.christies.com/cameras


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