An Exakta from an unsold lot – the Bill Mair collection
Toronto. Just over a quarter century ago, we felt a mail order catalogue of auction items would allow distant members of the PHSC to participate. Member Stan White volunteered to write the catalogue, not realizing the tremendous task he would undertake.
In those days, web site images were of a small size allowing a faster page load over the limited bandwidth. The dimensions of the tiny photo at left were nearly doubled in size to create this thumbnail. The image was far too small to enlarge to the usual 1200 x 900 view even though the original was taken with a Nikon Coolpix 990 digital camera with its massive 3-1/3 mpx size sensor.
For our first mail/phone venture, we planned to auction off the collection of a long time member, the late Bill Mair. Here is the note posted in our 25-5 issue of the journal:
“BILL MAIR COLLECTION – OF COLLECTABLE CAMERAS AND PHOTOGRAPHIC LITERATURE TO BE AUCTIONED
“Watch for an illustrated catalogue being sent to all PHSC members for a mail/phone auction of the Bill Mair collection offering very collectable cameras and photographic literature. At last count there were 165 lots of cameras and accessories and 85 lots of books/magazines. All will be accessible also on the PHSC website [our original website – now long gone]: http://web.onramp.ca/phsc.
“Highlights include eight cameras by Ihagee (Exa and Exakta), ten by Leica, seven by Rollei, seven by Voigtländer, thirty-four by Zeiss.
“Books include four volumes of Von Daguerre Bis Heute, thirteen Leica Collector’s and Price guides, and ten Zeiss Collector’s Guides. Bill Mair was a longtime PHSC member who assembled a fine collection, most in excellent condition. Closing date is June 15. ?
We operated our auctions under tighter rules back then. All unsold lots were put in a silent auction that September at the monthly Toronto meeting (after a second mail auction a few years later, the compiler of the catalogue vowed to never again agree to such an arduous task). …
