Meagher Tailboard - Antique and Vintage Cameras

Improved Portable Bellows Camera

Extending front version

P. Meagher

London

England

Image of Improved Portable Bellows Camera Extending front version

Lens:
f8, 8", Dallmeyer Rapid Rectilinear marked 6 x 5, slot for Waterhouse stops. Serial no. 47620 (c. 1890).

Shutter:
None.

Construction:
Brass bound Spanish mahogany, dovetail joints, brass binding and fittings. Leather square cornered bellows.

Format:
4" x 5" plates held in double dark-slides.

Focusing:
Bellows. Double extension, rack and pinion (diagonal cut) movement to rear standard.

Attributes:
'Meagher' side support. Reversing back. Front standard pulls forward to give double extension and is locked by two brass struts.

Movements:
Rising front, cross front. Tilting back about centre axis.

Notes:
Address on camera: Meagher. 21 Southampton Row. London. (1865 - 1897).

With:
3 double dark-slides (1 - 6). Lens cap.

The image on the right shows the unusual locking arrangement for the tilting back.

Improved Portable Bellows Camera

Extending front version

Mid 1880s

P. Meagher

London

England

Image of Improved Portable Bellows Camera Extending front version

Lens:
f8, 13" Dallmeyer Rapid Rectilinear, marked 10 x 8. Waterhouse stops. Serial no. 37013 (c. 1885).

Shutter:
None.

Construction:
Mahogany, dovetail joints, brass fittings, Russia leather, square cornered, bellows.

Format:
6 ½" x 8 ½" plates held in double dark-slides.

Focusing:
Bellows to 43". Double extension. Rack and pinion (straight cut) to rear standard.

Attributes:
Extending front and 'Meagher' side support. Top rail to support rear/middle standards. Two Thornton-Pickard plumb bobs. Two tripod sockets. Hinged focusing screen.

Identification:
Concave moulding to lens panel.

Movements:
Rise and cross front, tilting and swing back.

Notes:
Sand & Hunter address: 20 Cranbourn St. London. Meagher address: 21 Southampton Row. High Holborn. London. W. C.

With:

  • 3 double dark-slides (1 - 6). Lens cap. Focusing cloth. Focusing magnifier.
  • Detachable frame view-finder by Sands & Hunter.
  • Plate carrying box for 6 ½" x 8 ½" plates stamped P. Meagher. Plate carrying box for 4 ¾" x 6 ½" plates stamped P. Meagher.
  • Fitted Pine trunk with stencilled name: "H.H. M??DOCK".

The camera has a side-wing support and is usually fitted with Meagher's extending front, though this was optional. Other options were for brass binding and Russia leather bellows. Either a worm screw or rack and pinion focusing was employed. A tilting back was present and at an extra cost a centre pivoted side swing. The camera was light, portable and very suitable for field work. The extending front provided double extension for copying or long-focus work with one half of the lens removed. Originally available in sizes from 6 ½" x 4 ¾" to 10" x 8" and later quarter-plate to 15" x 12" or larger to order.

The side-wing was introduced by Meagher in the 1860s. The 'Portable Bellows Camera' was a development of the 'New Folding Camera' of c. 1867, it was of lighter construction than the earlier camera and "especially suitable for dry-plate". The style of address on the second example - High Holborn - was generally adopted until the early 1890s.

References & Notes:
BJA 1884, p. clxxxii. BJA 1890, p. 884. BJA 1892, p. 1164. YBP 1887, p. iii. YBP 1889, cover. YBP 1895, cover.

Further Information:
Smith, Antique Cameras, p.47.


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