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Brass Volute Shutter. c.1902 (the beauty of early camera shutters #9)

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mcheconi's loves290 of 1182Antique Bear Themed Contract Bridge Trump-Suit IndicatorPremo Supreme Camera. 1902. (The ultimate American self-casing plate camera?)
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    Posted 3 years ago

    rniederman
    (343 items)

    There was a time when shutters, a basic and required function, were mounted on the outside of camera bodies. Some makers took great pride in their creations and a few shutters were practically works of art. Occasionally I acquire a camera with a wonderful shutter; so also consider this a sneak peak into my next camera post.

    I've seen and owned a lot of early shutters throughout my years of camera collecting and consider the brass version of the Volute as one of the most beautiful. The shutter's face is hand decorated with a wavy, engine-turned pattern. Light bouncing off the etched patterns gives the face a visually distinctive depth and iridescence. A couple other earlier makers did engine-turning on shutter faces, but the Volute's workmanship is, in my opinion, the nicest. The overall design gives the shutter a steampunk feel. (FWIW, the more common version is housed in aluminum.)

    Made by Bausch & Lomb, it was marketed as the company's finest shutter with a top speed of 1/150th of a second: "... rapid enough for photographing athletes, race horses, etc., satisfactorily." Considering a lot of today's digital cameras easily exceed 1/4000th of a second, the Volute's fastest speed was still very respectable for the early 1900s. This particular shutter has a "PAT. APP'D." marking which makes it one of the earliest versions.

    This shutter is mounted, as standard equipment, on a very rare 1902 Premo Supreme camera in which all of its brass hardware has hand-applied engine-turned decorating. But that's a future post.

    Also ... it took me a couple days and now the shutter works nicely.

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    Comments

    1. rniederman rniederman, 3 years ago
      Thanks!
      vetraio50
      Newfld
    2. rniederman rniederman, 3 years ago
      Thanks!
      fortapache
      dav2no1
    3. rniederman rniederman, 3 years ago
      Thanks!
      sanhardin
      ho2cultcha
    4. rniederman rniederman, 3 years ago
      Thanks!
      Thomas
      BB2
    5. rniederman rniederman, 3 years ago
      Thanks!
      SDCameraFan
      Ben
      leighannrn
    6. rniederman rniederman, 3 years ago
      Thanks!
      Michael
      sugargirl
      Hoot60
    7. rniederman rniederman, 3 years ago
      Thanks!
      MarmorealMaiden
      vintagegirl66
      Cokeman1959
      JohnK
      f64imager
      SJMC
    8. rniederman rniederman, 3 years ago
      Thanks!
      egreeley1976
      Phonoboy
      kwqd
    9. rniederman rniederman, 3 years ago
      Thanks!
      chrissylovescats
      crswerner
      Longings
    10. rniederman rniederman, 3 years ago
      Thanks!
      mcheconi
      Vynil33rpm
    11. rniederman rniederman, 3 years ago
      Thanks, Sean!
    12. rniederman rniederman, 3 years ago
      Thanks, ttomtucker!

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