American Optical Company
Scovill Mfg. Co., Prop'rs
Landscape Reversible View Variation 1
American Annual of Photography and
Photographic Times Almanac for 1899,
p. 60
8 x 10" Bottom Top Celluloid Label - upper portion
of the ground glass frame Manufacturer: American Optical Co. New York, NY
factory
Landscape Reversible View Camera Model
(from
American Optical/Scovill Back Focus Tapering Bellows Field View Cameras - Chronology and Design)
-
Variations:
To second-guess the
Scovill & Adams
executives, the
Flammang's
Patent Revolving Back Camera
would appear to be a very expensive camera to be the only offering of
this type. Remember that a rear-focus camera is the only viable
option for very large (usually professional) cameras, while the cone
bellows reduces the weight of the very same large cameras. It is
as if
Scovill & Adams
was abandoning or at least reducing the options
for the professional photographer. Whatever the reason for
discontinuing the
Acme, it
would seem that the executives soon recognized that a camera of lower
cost than that of the
Flammang's
was needed - by the 1896 catalog, the
Flammang's Revolving Back cameras have disappeared and the
Landscape Reversible Back Camera has appeared.
One
major design difference between the
Landscape Reversible View and the
Acme Reversible View
and the
Flammang's Revolving Back View is that it has a
simple, two spring, spring back arrangement - a design based on Thomas
Blair's Sep. 2, 1884 patent, used on cameras of almost all plate or film
view cameras made after 1901 (around the time the patent expired), and
still used today. Ads for the
Landscape Camera always show the
thinner and modern style (~ ½" thick) removable and reversible back,
just as
Acme
ads always show their thick (more than 1" thick) back.
A second new feature
is a thick, all-wood construction front standard; the rising panel fits
into vertical slots in the standard sides. The rising panel is
quite recessed behind the surface of the front standard, whereas the
Acme
and
Flammang's Revolving Back
rise panels are even with the supporting sides of the
standard. The
rise locking mechanism is a spring-loaded button on the upper right side
of the front standard, which, when pushed, disengages a saw-tooth shaped
strip of steel.. In the older
Acme
and
Flammang's Revolving Back
cameras, the rising panels fit into slots in the standard sides, but
panel is held in by full-height brass strips; the rising panel is
controlled via a thumbscrew.
Ads for the
Landscape Camera
appear c.1896 - c.1899 in the
American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times Almanac.
Given the 2-4 year hiatus between advertisements of the
Acme
and
advertisements of the
Landscape, the
Landscape
isn't exactly a
replacement for the
Acme, but more like a revival. Ads are always
for the
Landscape Camera Variation 1
- never
Variation 2.
Landscape
Reversible View Camera
Variation 1: This variation has a push-pull focus
locked with a thumbscrew in the middle of the base of the rear standard.
Its vertical swing is push-pull, hinged at the bottom of the rear
standard and controlled/locked by a slotted plate and thumbscrew on the
top middle of the rear standard. Its horizontal swing is
push-pull, locked by a thumbscrew just in front of the focus-locking
thumbscrew. The folding platform is made rigid using the familiar
Flammang's patent rod and cylinder device used on so many
Scovill
products. The hardware is polished and lacquered brass. Another camera of interest to Landscape Camera design:
Landscape
Reversible View Camera
Variation 2:
This variation, while retaining the same essential design as
Variation
1, has quite a number of
differences: 1)the focus is rack and pinion rather than push-pull;
2) the vertical swing is hinged at the bottom, but controlled/locked by
a slotted plate and thumbscrew on the lower right side of the rear
standard (very similar to a number of
Scovill
products, the most common of which is the
Scovill Waterbury View Variation 2
);
3)the example has no horizontal swing, 4) the folding platform is
made rigid with a simple thumbscrew and threaded plate rather than the
patented rod and cylinder device (amazing), and 5) the hardware is
nickel-plated rather than lacquered brass.
References:
Back to American Optical Co. / Scovill Mfg. Co. (alphabetical)
Date Introduced: 1895 ;
Years Manufactured:
c.1895-c.1900
Construction:
rear
focus via push-pull locked by thumbscrew at the lower
middle of the rear standard; vertical swing locked by a
thumbscrew at the top of the rear standard, horizontal swing is locked
by a thumbscrew just ahead of the focus locking thumbscrew on the rear
standard;
reversing by removable back; three-piece lens board
Materials: mahogany body; cherry base;
black fabric bellows; brass hardware
Sizes Offered: 6½x8½; 8x10; 11x14; 14x17
Notes: 
The
Acme and the
Landscape cameras were never advertised at the same time.
In fact there is a gap of at least two years between the apparent
abandonment of the
Acme and
the start of the
Landscape.
Neither the Acme nor the
Landscape view cameras were
advertised in the Scovill & Adams
Co. catalogs for
January 1889,
March 1889,
March 1890,
June 1890,
April 1891,
June 1891, and
January 1892 (but no examples of catalogs from late 1892 through
early 1895 have been observed as yet) or in the almanacs for 1892, 1893,
1894 and 1895. However, it is also entirely possible that
Acme-type
cameras were still being manufactured 1892-1894, despite the lack of
advertising seen so far. During this
Acme-Landscape
gap, the only rear focus, cone bellows view camera advertised was the
Flammang's Patent
Revolving Back Camera Back Focus (a camera that is,
other than its revolving back, identical to the
Acme).
Counterfeit Landscape Reversible
View Camera Variation 1: This camera is a very good
reproduction of the design of the
American Optical Landscape Reversible View Variation 1.
Having said that, it can be seen that almost every detail of the camera
is different than the corresponding part of an AO camera. Some
examples are shown above, under Identifying a Counterfeit.
1895: not in 1895 literature until late 1895 or early
1896, below
Catalogue of Photographic Goods and All
Articles Pertaining to Photography, The Scovill & Adams Co. (New
York, NY), undated c.1895, p.15
American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times Almanac for
1896, The Scovill & Adams Co., 1895, ads
p. 69 ("a new camera)
American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times Almanac for
1897, The Scovill & Adams Co. (New York, NY),
1896, ads p. 67 (still "a new camera")
American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times Almanac for
1898, The Scovill &
Adams Co. (New York, NY), 1897, ads p. 70
(still "a new camera")
American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times Almanac for
1899, The Scovill &
Adams Co. (New York, NY), 1898, ads p. 60
(still "a new camera")
George Murphy (New York, NY) Catalog, April 1898, p. 20 (as the
Eagle Reversible Back View Camera)
American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times Almanac for 1900,
The Scovill & Adams Co. (New York, NY), 1899, ads p.
89
