Sears
Tower 120 Flash |
Sears is the most famous mail order house in the world since its Chicago building Sears Tower was the highest in the world for a certain period. In the U.S.A. it was the greatest mail-order an retail vendor of consumer goods. It was founded by Richard W. Sears in 1886. It started as reseller of watches in North Redwood, Minnesota. In 1887 Sears moved to Chicago and employed Alvah C. Roebuck as watch- and toolmaker. In 1893 Roebuck became partner in the company which then was renamed Sears, Roebuck & Co.. Like other great mail-order houses Sears had a house-brand for cameras, the Tower cameras which were all OEM products, made by different renowned camera makers of several countries.
Distributed cameras
original camera | sold as |
Toyoca-44 | Tower 44 |
Iloca Rapid | Tower 50 |
Iloca Rapid B | Tower 51 |
Iloca Rapid IIL | Tower 52 |
Olympus Ace-E | Tower 19 |
Ising Pucky I | Tower 120 Flash |
Busch 4x5 Pressman | Tower 4x5 Pressman |
Ricoh 126 C Automatic | Sears Easi-Load FC 600 |
Mamiya ??? | Tower Automatic 35 |
Nicca III | Tower Type 3 |
Halma 44 | Tower 44B |
Ansco Marvel S-20 | ??? |
Reflecta | Trumpfreflex |
Several Tower cameras were also made by Bilora. Sears lenses for SLRs were made by Ricoh. Conley was a partner of Sears & Roebuck. In 1924 Conley was owned by Sears, and bought Seneca. But the Seneca brand disappeared in 1926. In 1980 Sears, Roebuck and Co. was restructured and rebranded to Sears Merchandise Group.