The Wife's New Camera 110 . . . . . .

[Ian Grant]

A real old 110 camera made sometime between 1898 & 1904. she made me pay for it today at the Malvern Flea market

It takes 110 roll film, that's 5"x4" images on a large roll film. The Beck lens is in excellent condition and the pneumatic shutter is very smooth and remarkably accurate, bellows are like new. 110 was introduced in 1898 and the camera was made by the Alliance Roll-film Camera Co, Houghtons (later Houghton Butcher & Ensign) were involved but the company was wound up in 1904, at the same time Houghtons joined with Holmes Bros, Spratt Bros and 2 other small companies (so Alliance may have be a joint venture).

The wife wants me to use it so now for film. I have some Aerial film I could slit but I'd need backing paper, or I could coat my own (I made B&W emulsions commercially 70's'80's).

I'm reluctant to modify the camera as it's rare-, 3 small bits missing could be fabricated ish and in relatively good condition, it's not perfect but still very good and could be restored to like new.

Don't be deceived by the images it's quite a large but light camera

Ian

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Looks great, but is it really that old? Not so different from my 1937 Zeiss nettar, but I'm a million miles away from being an expert on such matters.

 

[Brian Moore]

Looks like it has a pair of tiny shock absorbers on the front. Very nice, Ian.

 

[Ian Grant]

Looks great, but is it really that old? Not so different from my 1937 Zeiss nettar, but I'm a million miles away from being an expert on such matters.

I'll photograph it next to my Ikonta in a few weeks when I'm in Turkey, it's a large camera 9" high (excluding the handle) in the photos, If you look through BJP Almanacs from the early 1900s there's quite a few similar cameras from various manufacturers.

The camera has a made in England badge as well as the Alliance Roll-film Camera Co badge and the company was wound up in 1904, so it is at least 110 years old, it was probably a joint venture between Houghtons and one of the companies that merged with them in 1904, after that similar Houghton cameras were sold with the Ensign name. Houghtons were also a film manufacturer, in the 1930's they were a major distributor for some Hollywood film studios supplying the duplicates sent to the cinemas around the UK.

Ian