Scovill Mfg. Co. (New York, NY)
The Scovill & Adams Co. (New York, NY)

 

 

Quick-Acting Peerless Lens (c.1860's-1880's)

 

 


Scovill Mfg. Co. "Peerless" Quick-Acting Lens, No. 3A, 4-4 size (8x10), lens diameter 3", F.L. 9", Radial Drive, Serial No. 645.
684.peck-field.view.peerless.lens-8x8-lens.scovill.peerless.radial-1-1500.jpg
684.peck-field.view.peerless.lens-8x8-lens.scovill.peerless.radial-2-1500.jpg
684.peck-field.view.peerless.lens-8x8-lens.scovill.peerless.radial-3-1500.jpg

684.peck-field.view.peerless.lens-8x8-lens.scovill.peerless.radial-engraving-1000.jpg

 

 


Notes: 

From http://www.antiquecameras.net/1876scovilllenscatalog.html, an excellent source of all kinds of wood and brass information:

     While there is information and existing lenses to support that Richard Morrison was involved in making a few lenses for the Scovill Peerless Lens line (perhaps pre-1872) that feature radial drive mechanisms, the common Peerless Petzval Lens line that sold for about a 15 year period, starting in 1872, features a European inspired tangential drive and construction details (see image below).  Also, note the Scovill article above mentions the Peerless is "of foreign manufacturer...," and "is used in many of the first-class galleries of Germany and France, and some in America..."   Speculation has it that the firm of Gasc & Charconnet of France may have been the supplier of the Peerless lenses sold by Scovill.

     Peerless lenses having both radial and tangential drive are seen, e.g., this radial drive lens and the tangential drive example of the Peerless Portrait Lens elsewhere on this website.  It would seem that the various types of Peerless lenses were made as early as the 1860's as the radial drive versions, and 1870's and later for the tangential drive versions.

References:
Un-named Four Page Flyer of Cameras & Supplies, Scovill Mfg. Co. (New York, NY), c.1882, p.3
How to Make Photographs and Descriptive Price List, Scovill Mfg. Co., distributed by Wilson, Hood & Co. (Philadelphia, PA), 1883, p. 17
Scovill Manf'g Co. Catalogue Photographic Goods, June, 1887, David Tucker & Co. (Buffalo, NY), June, 1887, p.59
Catalogue of Photographic Goods and All Articles Pertaining to Photography, The Scovill & Adams Co. (New York, NY), undated c.1895, p. 35


 

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