E. & H.T. Anthony

View and Portrait Boxes (#20-27)

Date Introduced: - ; Years Manufactured: c. 1872-c. 1897 (latter years as the Climax View Camera)
Construction: rear focus via push-pull with fine focusing screw; single or double swing; reversing by shield in plate-holder
Materials: mahogany body; cherry base; black rubber bellows; brass hardware
Sizes Offered: #20=4.25x6.5; #21=6.5x8.5; #22=8x10; #23=10x12; #24=11x14; #25=14x17; #26=17x20; #27=18x22
Notes: focus screw, folding bed, sliding front, brass rail guide.  This camera appears to be the standard portrait studio camera of the era balanced on a folding bed - thus the name view and portrait box.  The example above is 8x10 (#22), and has lost its back - the back pictured belongs to another Anthony 8x10 of the same era.  The focusing screw design/assembly is not original.   Additionally, the Anthony clips to hold the top of the back on have been replaced by Scovill clips, and the wooden pegs to hold the bottom of the back may have been enlarged or moved, presumably to accommodate a favorite plateholder.  Would seem to be the same camera (bearing the same model numbers) as the Climax View Camera of 1897.  The many extant amateur catalogs from the 1880's and early 1890's do not list the Climax - it must have been considered a camera for professionals only.
References:
E. & H.T. Anthony Catalog, 1872, p. 14

Back to E.& H.T. Anthony