Houghton and Ensign
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| antique plate camera |
The British company Houghton or Houghtons and its successors Houghton-Butcher, Barnet Ensign, Barnet Ensign Ross and Ross-Ensign.
History
In 1834 George Houghton joined Antoine Claudet to manage a glass warehouse in London, under the name Claudet & Houghton.[1] It became George Houghton & Son in 1867, then George Houghton & Sons in 1892.[2]
At the beginning of the 20th century, the company began to use the British ensign (i.e. marine flag)source needed as a brand symbol for its product line. It produced the roll film brand Ensign from 1903,source needed and its headquarters in High Holborn Street was called Ensign House in 1901.[3]
In 1903, the company was incorporated as George Houghton & Sons Ltd.,[4] and in 1904 it absorbed Holmes Bros. (the maker of the Sanderson cameras), A. C. Jackson, Spratt Bros. and Joseph Levi & Co., to form Houghtons Ltd.[5] The new company carried on the production of the smaller companies it had absorbed, and notably continued production of the Sanderson cameras until 1939.
In 1905 the company built a factory for the production of cameras on the Fulbourn Road in Walthamstow.source needed In 1907 this was the biggest British camera factory.source needed
Houghton was a renowned maker of magazine cameras like the Klito. Another characteristic product of Houghton was the Ensignette, a folding camera developed by the Swedish engineer Magnus Neill.
In 1915, Houghtons Ltd. came into a partnership with W. Butcher & Sons Ltd, founding the joint venture Houghton-Butcher Manufacturing Co., Ltd. to share the manufacturing facilities.[6] (This agreement was essential for Butcher, which had no manufacturing plant and was mainly trading imported German cameras before the outbreak of World War I.) The two companies Houghtons and Butcher continued to trade separately, and the camera designs remained distinct.[7]
The two trading companies finally merged on January 1st, 1926 to form Houghton-Butcher (Great-Britain) Ltd., which was renamed Ensign Ltd. in 1930.[8] (The manufacturing company based at Walthamstow kept the name Houghton-Butcher Manufacturing Co., Ltd. until 1945.)[9] The new trading company kept many of Houghtons and Butcher's camera ranges. In 1939 it introduced the Ensign Ful-Vue box camera, one of the most popular cameras of its time in the UK.
The headquarters of the trading company Ensign Ltd. were destroyed by an air raid on the night of September 24–5, 1940.[10] The assets of this company were taken over by Johnson & Sons, but the trademark Ensign was kept by the manufacturing company Houghton-Butcher Manufacturing Co., Ltd., which assumed the advertising and distribution of the Ensign cameras alone until 1945.[11]
In 1945, Houghton-Butcher Manufacturing Co., Ltd. associated with the film maker Elliott and Sons Ltd. (maker of the film brand "Barnet")source needed and became Barnet Ensign Ltd.[12] In 1948 Ross and Barnet Ensign were merged to Barnet Ensign Ross Ltd., which was finally renamed Ross-Ensign Ltd. in 1954.[13]
After World War II, the company soon abandoned the sophisticated Ensign Commando rangefinder camera and continued the range of Ensign Selfix and Ensign Autorange folding cameras, while introducing new models like the Ensign Ranger or the Snapper. Among simpler cameras, a new version of the Ensign Ful-Vue was released in 1946, which was further developed to the Ful-Vue Super and Fulvueflex pseudo-TLR.
The company stopped making cameras in 1961.[14]
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| Ensign Ful-Vue, with plastic front and focusing scale | Ensign Trikon Ranger, Ensar Anastigmat 105mm f/6.3 lens |
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| Ensign Selfix 820 Special, c.1953, with uncoupled rangefinder | Ensign Selfix 820, c.1952 |
Houghton (non-Ensign) cameras
see also Ensign
- Royal Mail Stereolette
- Shuttle
- Smyth Stereo- Handkamera
- Sylvar
- Ticka Watch camera
- Triple Victo
- Triple Victo Stereo
- Tudor
- Verifying Camera
- Victo
- Victo Stereo
- Victo Superb
Notes
- ↑ Channing and Dunn, p.54, McKeown, p.393.
- ↑ McKeown, p.393.
- ↑ "Ensign House": Channing and Dunn, p.54.
- ↑ Channing and Dunn, p.54, saying "George Houghton & Son Ltd."
- ↑ Channing and Dunn, pp.54–5.
- ↑ Channing and Dunn, pp.29 and 54, McKeown, pp.171 and 393.
- ↑ Channing and Dunn, pp.29 and 54, McKeown, pp.171 and 393.
- ↑ Channing and Dunn, p.55, McKeown, p.393.
- ↑ Channing and Dunn, p.55.
- ↑ McKeown, p.393.
- ↑ Channing and Dunn, pp.21 and 55, McKeown, p.393.
- ↑ Associated with Elliott and Sons Ltd. and became Barnet Ensign Ltd. in 1945: Channing and Dunn, p.21, McKeown, p.393.
- ↑ Channing and Dunn, p.21, McKeown, p.393.
- ↑ Channing and Dunn, p.21, McKeown, p.393.
Links
| 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 |
In English:
- Ensign Camera website, including:
- Ensign history and folding cameras at ozcamera
- Ensign Handbook of Photography at Mike Butkus' www.butkus.org
- Ensign Selfix at Mario Groleau's [1]
In French:
- Ensign Cameras at Sylvain Halgand's collection-appareils.com
- Houghton page at Collection G. Even's site
- Ensign E29 camera at The Old Album [2]
Bibliography
- Channing, Norman and Dunn, Mike. British Camera Makers. An A-Z Guide to Companies and Products. London : Parkland Designs, 1996. ISBN 0-9524630-0-8 Pp.21–2 and 54–8.
- 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). Pp.393–409.
