Photographic Catalogue
The
Anthony & Scovill Co., Bingamton, NY
Dated - 1906 (complete scan)
From about 1882 through 1899, E. & H.T. Anthony and the Scovill Mfc. Co. were the giants of amateur photographic cameras and supplies. By 1899 they had felt the massive shift in consumer photography to roll film cameras like the Kodak cameras. Their drop in sales was so precipitous that they these two former rivals merged.
This 1906 is a rare catalog from the handful of years after the merger when they still put out a complete catalog. In fact, 1906 is the last year for Anthony & Scovill, as they changed their name to ANSCO Photoproducts in 1907, even though the address on this catalog is already Binghamton, NY, their new headquarters, rather than their long time home, New Yoek City. By 1910, they mainly put out ANSCO catalogs that are small both in size and total pages. This 1906 catalog has a few products already designated as "ANSCO", including to the Ansco Compact Dry Plate Camera on page 47, which used to be called the Anthony & Scovill Leather-Covered Compact camera.
In this catalog, they still have a relatively large variety of studio plate cameras (and even supplies for wet plate work). But their offerings of wooden dry plate view cameras is down to three: the Champion View (Var. 4), the N.P.A. View (Var. 4), and the Long Focus Clifton View.
In the Photographic Goods 1842-1904, the Anthony & Scovill 1904 Catalog, a few illustrations are halftone prints (having a pattern of small dots to vary print density), but most of the many illustrations continued to be line engravings (having solid lines for shading). Just two years later, in this 1906 catalog, every single illustration is a halftone print. In these two catalogs, we therefore catch the historical and sudden takeover of the halftone process in camera catalogs.
