Reynolds and Branson
Advertisement from Jackson's Cyclist's Guide to Yorkshire by Tom Bradley, 1900 (Publisher: Richard Jackson, Leeds). Given the date, 'as used in South Africa' may well refer to the Boer War. Scan by Michael Fawcett (Image rights) |
Reynolds and Branson was a company in Leeds, UK, apparently founded in 1816.[1][2] The company had premises in central Leeds, at 14 Commercial Street and 13 Briggate.
The firm was apparently founded by Thomas Harvey.[3] Subsequent company names include Harvey & Reynolds (1856), Harvey, Reynolds & Fowler (1861), Haw & Reynolds (1864), Haw, Reynolds & Co. (1867) and Reynolds & Branson (1886),[3] mostly recorded at addresses in Commercial Street and Briggate. Harvey, Reynolds & Company was also at the same addresses in 1881[4] By this date, Harvey (if the same man) would have been very old or dead, and it is probable this was a trading name used by the surviving company owners.
The company is generally described as a chemist and optician, but also made general medical equipment (including microscopes[5] and mercury thermometers[6]) and photographic items,[7] including cameras and magic lanterns.
Half-plate tailboard camera image by eBayer videohdv (Image rights) |
Cameras, etc
- Half-plate tailboard camera, about 1890 [8]
- Whole- or half-plate field camera, about 1890.[1]
- 'Phoenix' shutter: a rather crude shutter, with a hinged flap as the opening blind for each lens, that automatically releases a dropping plate as the closing blind (the 'drop' is accelerated by a tensioned rubber band). The Phoenix was made in both normal mono and stereo models[9][10] Reynolds & Branson patented the Phoenix in 1883, and Branson patented a further development of the shutter on his own.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 McKeown, James M. and Joan C. McKeown's Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 12th Edition, 2005-2006. USA, Centennial Photo Service, 2004. ISBN 0-931838-40-1 (hardcover). ISBN 0-931838-41-X (softcover). p819.
- ↑ Grace's Guide; the entry includes an advertisement for three items: patient record cards, filing drawers for them, and suppositaries!
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bennion, Elisabeth (1979) Antique Medical Instruments, Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications/University of California Press, London, 1979, p319. at Google Books.
- ↑ 1881 advertisement for Harvey, Reynolds & Co.'s Phosphorade, at Mickey Mike's Leeds Ginger Beer & Mineral Water Bottles (including ginger beer and mineral water bottles and pot lids by Reynolds & Branson).
- ↑ Microscope by Harvey, Reynolds & Co., sold at auction by Red Baron Antiques, Altanta, GA in January 2013.
- ↑ The Allbutt Clinical Thermometer (archived), made by Harvey, Reynolds & Co., at the blog of the University of Leeds' Museum of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine.
- ↑ British Journal of Photography Vol XXI (1874), No. 733, p247, 'The Harrogate Rest', describing a portrait photographer's head-rest introduced by Harvey, Reynolds & Co.; at the Internet Archive.
- ↑ Reynolds and Branson half-plate tailboard camera, about 1890, at Wood and Brass
- ↑ Stereo Phoenix shutter at Early Photography.
- ↑ Mono Phoenix shutter in the catalogue of an exhibition Cameras: the Technology of Photographic Imaging at Museum of the History of Science, Oxford 20 May - 13 September 1997.
British companies | ||
Adams & Co. | Agilux | Aldis | APeM | Aptus | Artima | Barnet Ensign | Beard | Beck | Benetfink | Billcliff | Boots | British Ferrotype | Butcher | Chapman | Cooke | Corfield | Coronet | Dallmeyer | Dekko | De Vere | Dixons | Dollond | Elliott | Gandolfi | Gnome | Griffiths | G. Hare | Houghtons | Houghton-Butcher | Hunter | Ilford | Jackson | Johnson | Kentmere | Kershaw-Soho | Kodak Ltd. | Lancaster | Lejeune and Perken | Lizars | London & Paris Optic & Clock Company | Marion | Marlow | Meagher | MPP | Neville | Newman & Guardia | Pearson and Denham | Perken, Son and Company | Perken, Son & Rayment | Photopia | Purma | Reid & Sigrist | Reynolds and Branson | Ross | Ross Ensign | Sanderson | Sands & Hunter | Shackman | Shew | Soho | Standard Cameras Ltd | Taylor-Hobson | Thornton-Pickard | Underwood | United | Watkins | Watson | Wynne's Infallible | Wray |
Links
- British Patent 16373 of 1893 granted to F.W. Branson, Improvements in or in connection with cameras, describing (i) the use of ribs to strengthen and stiffen the sliding parts of a focusing bed, and (ii) a design for a rack-and-pinion focusing mechanism using racks with teeth cut at an angle and pinions cut in a spiral, to give smoother focusing operation than a conventional rack and pinion; at Espacenet, the patent search facility of the European Patent Office.
- Photograph of a photographic exhibition of 1891 in the Leeds City Art Gallery, with a display case of goods by Reynolds and Branson, presumably sponsors of the exhibition; at Leodis - a photographic archive of Leeds. Another display case, facing this one, showed goods by Pearson and Denham.