an old Potter badged glass plate projector
Toronto. Issue 26-5 introduces us to a Toronto company selling various scientific instruments such as the Potter Lantern shown at left and described by Bill Belier and Bob Wilson in Bill’s “A Treasure From Two Collections…” column.
Bill begins, “About twenty years ago [1980] I received a call from an old gentleman living in a rural area just east of Toronto that lead to my acquisition of the Potter Lantern, pictured here. Somehow he knew my telephone number, supplied by a ‘friend of a friend’…
“He could not quite remember the sequence, but he had been told that I would buy old cameras. Well, he had just such a camera… ‘with a big brass lens’ that he had discovered in his attic.
“It apparently was left behind by the former owner of a house he purchased soon after WW II. Was I interested?… Yes I was, and without further questioning, drove over to see the camera the following day.
“Name plate on [the] lens of Bob Wilson’s Victor projector reads: Sold By Charles Potter, 85 Yonge St. Toronto. (1901-1914)
“What a disappointment awaited me… the ‘big brass lens’ was attached to an ugly old lantern slide projector that did nothing to increase my heart beat… I had expected at least a wet-plate [camera]!
“My host was visibly disappointed by my lack of enthusiasm after I had explained that a projector was not actually a camera. But because of the strange name plate, with the Toronto reference, I decided to purchase the projector anyway. Not being in any particular hurry to find out more, I consigned it to my storage loft where it remained until I casually mentioned it to Bob Wilson recently [March 2001].
“His 1989 article about a projector in his collection, the Victor Portable Stereopticon also had a connection to Charles Potter (see P.C. Vol. 15 No 3 1989).”
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