an unusual lens signed as from a Montreal dealer
Toronto. In issue 25-1 (June 1999), Bill Belier has a very strange lens in his column “A Treasure from My Collection“. Bill explains, “This month’s “treasure” comes from Gerard Spiegel of Scarsdale, New York. A member of P.H.S.C. for over twenty years, he is well known throughout the photographic fraternity as a collector and writer.”
Bill contacted our then editor, Bob Lansdale, to share Gerald’s letter and inquiry. Gerald writes, “In the enclosed Polaroid you will see a brass-tube lens with an end cap with a pivoting shutter plate and slot for five Waterhouse stops. The stops are numbered with the opening diameters in millimeters from 10 through 48. The pivoting plate[ is marked] “6 1/2 IN”; directly below is an egg-shaped logo engraved “Hearn & Harrison, Montreal”.
“The entire front end screws neatly to the end of the tube, but there is no flange or other provision to mount the tube to a camera body. The lack of a mount is not a problem as Simon Wing regularly used a “press fit”, where a tube would be forced into a fabric-lined hole in a lens board.
“It’s the Hearn & Harrison name that I cannot locate. This has the earmarks of a tintype lens, and if it didn’t have the unique front end, I would have assumed it was off a four-tube brass lensboard with a 6 1/2” focal length.” …
Members read more of Gerald’s letter and its outcome in the pdf file for issue 25-1 on the free members-only DVD/thumb drive. See above and at right under “Membership” to join. Questions can be emailed to Lilianne at member@phsc.ca.
