San Giorgio magnifier for focussing slide c1950
Toronto. The company “San Giorgio” (St George in English) was founded in Genova, Italy in 1905 to manufacture automobiles. Like many companies, products changed to those with more potential for profit. San Giorgio S.I.p.A. dropped automobiles and moved on to optical instruments including cameras.
After the second world war, it briefly made cameras based on screw mount Leicas (the Janua series) and many accessories including a focussing stage and a ground glass magnifier.
Unlike Leitz, they made a shell with inserts for various magnifications. I have a shell plus the 20x and 40x magnification inserts purchased from Robert Pins in the States back in 1988.
