Butchers Cameo Quarter Plate Camera – By Emma Wheeler
Just over a year ago (pre-Covid 19) I was excited to discover an antique half plate mahogany folding field camera had come in for auction at work. Supposedly from sometime around the 1890s, it was an impressive beast with a big shiny brass lens on the front plate and complex looking wooden contraption for a tripod, which would have probably taken two people to carry… In a fit of madness I placed a cheeky bid on it but sadly didn’t get to take it home. It ended up going way beyond what I (in my ignorance) though it was worth and to be brutally honest at that point in time it was of as much interest to me as a piece of art as it was a working camera.
