Lechner

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R. Lechner & W. Müller was a photographic dealer in Vienna, from the late 19th century until at least 1930. Rudolph Lechner was never involved in the camera business.[1] He inherited a bookselling and publishing business, and was publisher and bookseller to the University. He preferred to concentrate on publishing, and sold the retail bookselling business to Eduard Müller and Alfred Werner. They, however, continued to operate the bookstore under the Lechner name, as R. Lechner University Bookstore (Müller & Werner). Eduard Müller soon left, and Werner took the (unrelated) Wilhelm Müller as partner: Müller had experience in bookselling, which Werner didn't. The bookstore was successful, and obtained the Royal warrant. Lechner died in 1895.[2]

Werner set up a wood workshop to make cameras designed by Ludwig David, a former artillery officer. The first cameras were the David Salon Kamera, and the bookshop sold David's photography guidebook. The Werner Reisekamera was introduced in 1887. Werner died in 1889, and Ernst Reick, already employed in the company, took over management of much of the photographic business. The company became Kodak distributor for Austria, and obtained the Royal warrant for photographic goods in 1896 (so their cameras and publications carry the Royal warrant K. u. K. Hof-Manufactur f. Photographie). The photographic company was still named on camera labels as 'R. Lechner (Wilh. Müller)'. They also operated a portrait studio, and published books including their own photographic works. The retail business was at 31 Graben in the centre of the city, and from about 1900 there was a separate factory.[1]

Cameras

  • Tailboard-style Reisekameras, mahogany.[3] The camera allows front rise and cross movements, and rear tilt. It has a 'reversing' back; that is, the back can be detached to orient it vertically or horizontally.
  • Stereo tailboard cameras: a stereo model of the Reisekamera above.[4]
  • Field cameras, mahogany, folding conventionally, sometimes named as Werner Apparat, in several sizes.[5] These are of similar design to what are called 'field cameras' in the English-speaking world, but would also have been called Reisekameras in German: it is possible this is a later design, replacing the tailboard style. The camera allows front and rear tilt, and front rise and cross movements. The examples cited have a rotating back (they switch from horizontal to vertical without detaching the back).
  • Taschenkamera ('pocket camera', though the examples seen are for 9x12cm or 12x15cm, not pocketable); wooden-bodied strut-folder with a focal-plane shutter.[6][7] The camera has a shallow body housing the focal-plane shutter, and an unpleated leather bellows, extended on 'chambre à joues' struts on each side: other than these unusual struts the camera resembles many strut-folding focal-plane cameras like the Goerz Ango. It has helical focusing. There are shoes for a reflex finder, and bubble levels, for horizontal and vertical use. The example seen has a shoe-mounted brilliant finder (or perhaps a Watson finder) on top of the body: a Newton-type finder is more common on such cameras. In addition to the FP shutter, there is a simple hinged flap shutter on the front of the lens; a lens-cap on a hinge. This might have served for long exposures, or perhaps it serves to cover the lens while tensioning the FP shutter, if this is not self-capping.
  • Neue Taschenkamera from about 1902[8] Wooden-bodied strut-folding camera, more closely resembling the Ango, etc., with narrow struts at the top and bottom of the unpleated bellows. This was made in 6x9cm, 9x12cm and 13x18cm sizes.[9] The front standard allows rise and cross movements. McKeown lists this camera as a 'Hand-Camera', dating it to 1905-7.[10] The camera has a Newton finder mounted awkwardly at the top of the front standard.
  • Multiplikator camera to copy Carte de Visite portraits, making sixteen miniature copies, each the size of a large postage stamp, on a 9x12cm plate. The camera has an array of sixteen small lenses, and a long front board where a stand for the original portrait would have been set.[11]
  • Flugzeugkamera 12x18cm aerial camera, 1915, presumably for military use. Wooden body housing a focal-plane shutter - essentially the body of a Taschenkamera - with a deep snoot-shaped hood (apparently aluminium) on the front, mounted on a pistol-grip, and with a folding frame-finder. The shutter speed is adjusted both by the slit-width and the spring tension, and offers speeds 1/10 to 1/1000 second.[12] The British Williamson company made a similar pistol-shaped aerial camera later (about 1930).

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 History of Lechner at Photohistory.at.
  2. ↑ Rudolph Lechner at Wikisource (Lechner's entry in the Austrian National Encyclopaedia) and Wikidata.
  3. ↑ Reisekamera examples:
    13x18cm tailboard Reisekamera outfit with two lenses, wooden tripod and outfit case, dated to 1895 by the auctioneer, sold at the 38th Leitz Photographica Auction, in June 2021;
    20x25cm Reisekamera with Dallmeyer soft-focus lens, dated c1910, sold at the 22nd Westlicht Auction, in November 2012.
  4. ↑ 9x18cm Stereo camera with 120mm Reichert Combinar lenses in a Thornton-Pickard stereo shutter. The distance between the lenses can be adjusted. Sold at the thirteenth Westlicht Auction, in June 2008.
  5. ↑ Field camera examples:
    18x24cm Field camera labelled as 'Werner Apparat', with Rodenstock Portrait Objektiv No.2, sold at the seventeenth Westlicht Auction, in May 2010.
    16x20cm Field camera with 180mm f/7.2 Meyer Aristostigmat, dated c1920, sold at the 36th Leitz Auction, in June 2020.
    18x24cm Field camera with ROJA (Emil Busch) Porträt Anastigmat (no shutter), dated c1920, sold at the 31st Westlicht Auction, in June 2017.
    18x24cm Field camera with 18cm f/4.5 Xenar (no shutter), dated c1930, sold at the 30th Westlicht Auction, in November 2016.
    18x24 Field camera set up for stereo, with Suter lenses in stereo shutter, dated c1910, sold at the 37th Leitz Auction, in November 2020; the ground glass apparently replaced with bathroom-window glass!
  6. ↑ Taschenkamera examples:
    12x15cm Taschenkamera with 170mm f/6.3 Zeiss Anastigmat, two detachable plate magazines, each with built-in changing bag, and an Eastman roll-film back. The property of Archduchess Maria Therese of Braganza (at Wikipedia), the stepmother of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Sold at the 32nd Westlicht Auction, in March 2018. Dated to 1920 by the auctioneer, though Lechner had been making the Neue Taschenkamera with different struts for years by then.
    9x12cm Taschenkamera with 105mm f/6.3 Zeiss Anastigmat, with rear-mounting extension bellows (presumably to allow close-ups or a longer lens), sold at the Breker auction Photographica and Film, March 2015.
  7. ↑ Anleitung zur Handhabung von Lechner's Taschen-Camera (Instructions for handling Lechner's pocket camera); Ferdinand Probst, Ch. von Reissner & M. Werthner. 53 pages. Published by Lechner & Müller. Sadly only a listing; no e-book exists.
  8. ↑ 9x12cm Neue Taschenkamera with 120mm f/4.8 Goerz Doppel-Anastigmat IB Celor, at Collection Appareils
  9. ↑ Photohistory.at shows a catalogue page for the Neue Taschenkamera offering the camera in three sizes and with numerous choices of lens.
  10. ↑ '9x12cm Hand Camera' with f/6 Goerz Doppelanastigmat Series III: 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). p595.
  11. ↑ Multiplikator camera sold at the seventeenth Westlicht Auction.
  12. ↑ Flugzeugkamera missing its lens, but adjustable between f/4.5 and f/9, and with three six-exposure film magazines, sold at the fifteenth Westlicht Auction, in May 2009.


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