Murer & Duroni

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Teodoro Murer was a camera designer based in Milan, Italy, who made cameras with a company called Duroni. They sold cameras under the names Murer and Salex. In Sweden, the cameras were sold by Hasselblad, and in France by Gaumont[1]. The Duroni company was founded by Alessandro Duroni (1807-1870), c.1835-36, as an optical instrument dealer[2]; Murer joined the company in c.1892.

There are a number of albumen photographs in galleries credited to Murer & Duroni as photographers[3]. Since the original Duroni had died before Murer arrived, this credit must be to the company or a later Duroni. Alessandro Duroni himself has a number of photos credited, including of Guiseppe Garibaldi and Vittorio Emmanuele II, King of Italy 1861-78.

Cameras

Detective cameras

  • Blitz
  • [[Express Détective|Simple Détective]
  • Express Détective (original model, No. 1 and No. 2); wooden falling-plate detective cameras for various plate sizes, c.1900, often called the Express Newness.

Strut-folding cameras

  • Strut-folding plate cameras with focal plane shutter, about 1905-1930s. These are metal-bodied with leather covering. McKeown states that there are models in all the same plate sizes as the Express Newness,[4] plus stereo models for 4.5×10.7 cm and 6×13 cm plates.[5]
  • Salex Murer: miniature strut-folding camera for 40×55 mm photographs on plates or film packs.[6]
  • Sprite: a strut-folding camera for 4.5×6 cm plates or 127 roll film
  • UF (strut folder, c.1910)
  • UP-M (strut folder, c.1924)
  • SL Special
  • Stereo SL Special

Other cameras

  • Murer's Express
  • Muro (folder, 1914)
  • Piccolo (roll-film jumelle camera, c.1900)
  • Reflex (6.5x9cm SLR, c.1920s)
  • SL (Box, c.1900)
  • Stereo Box
  • Stereo Reflex (plate stereo SLR)

References

  1. Notes on the Express Newness SL falling-plate box camera, about 1900, for 6.5×9 cm plates, in the Collection of Elisabetta and L. David Tomei.
  2. Storia della Fotografia
  3. e.g. at the National Portrait Gallery in London and on the Storia della Fotofrafia site {Italian}
  4. 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). p704-5.
  5. 4.5×10.7 cm stereo strut-folding camera, about 1920, with focal plane shutter, 60 mm f/4.5 Murer Anastigmat lenses with iris diaphragm, and Newton finder attached to sliding lens cover. Sold at the November 2002 Westlicht auction.
  6. 1922 Salex Murer camera in an exhibition Cameras: the Technology of Photographic Imaging at the Oxford Museum of the History of Science. The camera has a 70 mm f/5.5 anastigmat with helical focusing to one metre, and focal-plane shutter with speeds up to 1/1000 second. Ground-glass focusing is also possible. There is a Newton finder with the front part mounted in a sliding lens cover, like the earlier Gaumont Block-Notes.

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