I’m a relatively new photographer, born (maybe reborn is more appropriate?) into the digital age of photography where everything is pixels and speed. But once upon a time, long long ago I did shoot film and I’m even old enough to remember photographing with a camera that had one of those fantastically cool rotating flash bulbs.
Now if you’re older than me, or have any interest in the history of camera’s then you might be interested in this auction of cameras being sold at Leonard Joel Auction House in Melbourne, Australia on July 18th. There are literally hundreds of cameras available.
The camera collection dates from the beginnings of photography in the 1840s and 1850s through to detective cameras of the 1880s and 1890s and, more recently, Leica cameras from the 1920s to 1960s period (lots 200-252). Of particular interest are a group of miniature and disguised ‘spy’ cameras such as the Photo-Binocle dating from the 1890s (lot 259) which features a camera disguised as a pair of binoculars and street cameras designed for taking while-you-wait photographs such as the Ertee photo button camera (lot 114). You can see the catalogue here – http://leonardjoel.com.au
A word of warning – the last photography related auction at Leonard Joel, a collection of images from the estate of photographer Wolfgang Sievers had a pre-sale estimate for the collection of $22,000. The collection eventually sold for $191,000 so obviously Leonard Joel has a bit of work to do on their estimates….. An article on that auction can be found on The Age website and the auction results can be found here
