Lancaster Gem Apparatus

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The Gem Apparatus is a wooden-bodied plate camera for making many small photographs on a single plate. It was made from about 1880 by Lancaster of Birmingham, England. It would typically have been used by photographic studios, for portraits. These might usually have been on ferrotype plates, developed as positives; the robust metal plate could be cut into individual tiny 'gem' portraits, to be given away, sent by post, put into lockets, etc.

The camera has an array of twelve lenses. It has no shutter, other than a manually-operated wooden slide in front of the lenses. The lens standard moves on a focusing bed, with a rack-and-pinion mechanism. McKeown states that twelve pictures were made on a 9x12 cm plate;[1] George Eastman House gives the same information but cites McKeown as the source.[2] An example was sold at Westlicht in 2011;[3] the auction listing states that it can take up to 36 pictures (three sets of twelve) on a 13x18 cm plate, but this seems improbable (two exposures on a 13x18 plate would be compatible with one on 9x12 cm).

A camera with nine lenses, described as Type 2 of the Gem Apparatus, was sold at auction in 2005.[4] This makes somewhat larger (1½x2 inch) 'Victoria'-sized portraits.

Early Photography shows another camera of the same general type (but not a Gem), for four Victoria-size pictures on quarter-plate (or eight, by two exposures, on 5x7 inch).[5]

There are several similar cameras by other makers:

  • The Wing New Gem is very similar, making fifteen ferrotype portraits on a 13x18 plate.
  • Butcher's Royal Mail camera was intended for use with negative plates, and the negative combined for printing with a supplied one that added a decorative frame to each picture, making prints resembling postage stamps, on special paper.[6] Ferrotype plates could undoubtedly also be used.
  • Houghton's Holborn Stamp Camera copies a photograph (or in principle, any picture) as nine stamp-sized miniatures on quarter-plate.[7]


Notes

  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). p593.
  2. Gem apparatus at Eastman Museum; good pictures of the camera.
  3. Gem apparatus sold at the 20th Westlicht Photographica Auction, on 12 November 2011.
  4. Gem Apparatus type 2 with nine lenses, for 13x18 cm plates, sold in May 2005 (lot 49, auction 22) by LP Foto.
  5. Four-lens camera at Early Photography.
  6. Royal Mail camera at Early Photography.
  7. Holborn Stamp Camera at Early Photography.