a beautiful tropical model of a TECO box camera
Toronto. Glad you asked! It is one of the unusual (and rare) cameras offered today at our Fall Fair by Les Jones. It was once sold by store and catalogue here in Canada by Eaton’s, now long gone ( folded the end of 1999) but still familiar for the Eaton Centre at Yonge and Dundas on what once was the firm’s flag ship store.
Seriously, ‘tropical’ camera models were made of materials intended to resist damage in hot, humid environments like the tropics.
It was (and still is) popular for large companies to ‘private brand’ products made by others. Sometimes the private brand versions had different options and sometimes not. Typical of companies who sold private brand goods was the late T. Eaton Company, famous for its large catalogue of household goods and its flag ship Toronto Store.
Eaton’s had stores in many Canadian cities and even a catalogue ordering service in smaller communities. The department store and catalogue colossus was our version of the mighty American Sears outfit in Chicago – known up here as Simpson-Sears in the early mid last century when it bought out the Robert Simpson company, a main competitor of Eaton’s. It later slunk back home to Chicago and Eaton’s failed under their 3rd generation control.
All that is history as they say. The beautiful little TECO box camera is just one of the offerings at our fair today. Come out and enjoy the sunny day; meet old friends; add to your collection/user gear and expand your knowledge of photo history!
PS: The good food mentioned in earlier posts will unfortunately not be offered this year. Apologies to all.
