At the Sign of the Angel

The building dates back to the 1300's (please do not tell me that it

is not quite straight - nothing is in Laycock). It is a couple of

minutes walk from the photographer's shrine at Laycock Abbey. The

building only became a guest house 50 years ago, and the camera is

probably older than that. Does anyone know about this camera? It is

obviously older than the 'Box Brownie', because it is made of wood

and leatherette, not metal.

fantastic shot. its simply marvellous.

Nice shot, Antonio, and good to see an old Kodak in use. It just shows what a minimal camera, a big film area and a good photographer's eye can do. Did you re-spool 120 to get 620 film? I can look up the date of the camera though it might need a bit more detail to pin it down. Without the book I seem to remember the 620 film size was introduced in the 1930's to try to reduce the size of the 120 spool and lasted till the 60's. The lens flare adds a nice touch to this shot though if you wanted you could reduce that by shading the lens with your hand (keeping it out of the shot!). Very appropriate taking this at Laycock!

Thanks for the comment, Colin. I did respool 120, and I obtained the extra 620 spool from City Photographic in Southampton. The problem with 620 is that the spindle is much thinner than 120, and a modern film acquires a much more pronounced curl, which makes it more difficult to load into the spiral for developing. I have a date for the camera. It looks almost identical to the UK model made between 1939 and 1943. The only thing is that the side catches are long, not short, and they look very much like chromed versions of those of the previous model, made between 1937 and 1938. Perhaps they used up the stock of components left over from the previous production run first (it was war time), which would date it nearer 1939 than 1943.

You are probably right about using up the bin ends from the previous model on the next. That would make it about 1939 as you say. My info is less detsiled than yours but points to a late 30's date too. Incidentally the first Box Brownie appeared in about 1900 and it is quite common to find examples from pre-WW1 which take 120 film and so are resdily usable apart from the usual dim finders. Do you have any more shots where this one came from?

Thanks, Colin. Most of the shots that I had were spoilt by the rain, but I fully intend to go back to Laycock Abbey, and photograph Fox Talbot's window with this camera.